
Book__*Gl&3JL_ 



THE IDLE WORD: 

SHORT RELIGIOUS ESSAYS 

9^~ 



UPON THE 



GIFT OF SPEECH, AND ITS EMPLOYMENT IN 
CONVERSATION. 



EDWARD MEYRICK GOUKBURN, D.D. 

PREBENDABT OF ST. PAUL'S, CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OP OXFOED, AND ONE 
OF HEE MAJESTY'S CHAPLAINS IN OEDINAEY. 

"As, alphabets in ivory employ, 
Hour after hour, the yet unletter'd boy, 

(Sorting and puzzling with a deal of glee 
Those seeds of science call'd his ABC; 
So language in the mouth of the adult 
(Witness its insignificant result) 
Too often proves an implement of play, 
A toy to sport with, and pass time away. 
* * * * 

Sacred interpreter of human thought, 

How few respect or use thee as they ought ! 

But all shall give account of every wrong. 

Who dare dishonour or defile the tongue." — Cowper. 



£n& 62 % foorft* tfiou jsjjalt U itmlttvxtuto." 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
1866. 



Or 



♦♦♦v- 






v 






46967 






IN MEMORY 



OF THE LATE 



RIGHT HOK HENRY GOITLBURN, M.P., 

WHO HAS PASSED TO HIS REST 

SINCE THIS TREATISE 

ON THE GOVERNMENT OP THE TONGUE, 

A GRACE WHICH HE SINGULARLY 

EXEMPLIFIED, 

WAS FIRST INSCRIBED TO HIM. 



PEEFACE 



The reader of this little Book will soon discover 
from the style adopted in parts of it, that the sub- 
stance of the several Chapters has been delivered in 
the form of Sermons. But the throwing of these 
Sermons into the form of short Religious Essays has 
given me the opportunity of introducing matter 
unsuited for the Pulpit, and of erasing much which 
had only a special reference to the circumstances 
and temptations of my own flock. At the same 
time, I have felt unwilling (in this, as in a former 
publication) to omit entirely all practical addresses 
and appeals of a devotional character, however out 
of place such passages may seem to be in an Essay. 
For indeed I feel that all exclusively speculative 
treatment of Religious Subjects (and specially of a 



6 Preface. 

subject having so close a bearing upon practice, as 
that with which the following Pages deal) is to be 
avoided. We do not think on these subjects aright, 
unless our minds are led on from the theory of them 
to the influence which they ought to exercise upon 
our practice, — unless we allow them to stir within 
us the sentiments and aspirations of devotion. Uor, 
except we view them under this light, are we safe 
from erroneous conclusions respecting them. For 
right conclusions on Religious subjects cannot be 
formed by those who speculate upon them in a 
wrong, or in a defective, spirit. 

To some, I fear, the Rules of Conversation here 
proposed may appear too strict, and even impossible 
to be carried out. May I request that such Readers 
wdll consider, before they reject the Rules, what is 
said in Chapter Vil. on Words of Innocent Recrea- 
tion ? 

I may have erred doubtless in some of my appli- 
cations of it to practice, — but I cannot see my 
way to evade the general principle, that words, to 
redeem themselves from the charge of being idle, 
must fulfil some one of the ends which words were 
designed to fulfil. These ends are indicated at 
length in the body of the Work, and it only remains 
for me to say, that a wider scope should possibly be 



Preface. 7 

given to the term, "innocent recreation," than it 
was consistent with the nature of a religious essay 
to set forth. A great many words which can- 
not be justly called witty, or humorous, yet tend 
to relieve the burdens of life, and to lighten the 
heart with a gleam of merriment ; nor would it be 
possible to enter into any useful conversation with- 
out passing through the preliminary porch of lighter 
remarks, and repartees upon ordinary topics. If 
such things were precluded, conversation would lose 
its ease and gaiety, and with these its power of 
refreshing the mind. To preserve this power (which 
ought always to attach to it), while at the same 
time guarding against empty words, and the en- 
croachment of a spirit of unwatchfulness, is doubt- 
less an arduous task, — one of the most arduous 
perhaps which the Christian has to achieve ; but it 
is our encouragement and consolation to know that 
our Merciful Lord never commands impossibilities, 
and offers us not only the guidance of general prin- 
ciples in His Word, but also Grace and Light to 
direct the individual conscience, in its attempts to 
apply those principles to the conduct of daily life. 

E. M. G. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONNEXION OF SPEECH WITH KEASON. 

PAG2 

Our Lord's warning against idle words — The Old Testament warning 
on the same subject, and its position in the Decalogue — the indifference 
of words has a strong hold upon the mind, even of religious people — 
Probable moral effects of the attempt to rectify our words — Importance 
of words deduced from the Connexion of Speech with Keason — The fact 
of this connexion — Inability of inanimate Nature to speak— Passionate 
appeals to Nature not responded to — The rational creature's response by 
Prayer (which is Speech) to God's appeal — Inability of animated Nature 
to speak — Animals can express only feeling, and not intelligence, by 
means of sound — The song of birds a thing of the same class with instru- 
mental music — The wonderful amount of intelligence conveyed in a com- 
mon-place direction or instruction — Prayer and Praise the highest exer- 
cise of Speech — Consequent degradation of Speech by low or frivolous 
employment of it— the dignity of singing the Praises of God, as an exer- 
cise which combines both intelligence and feeling — Singing associated by 
the Inspired Writers with Glory — Conclusion, 17 

NOTE. 

On certain appearances resembling Speech in animals, . . .32 
1* 



10 Contents. 



CHAPTER H. 

THE CONNEXION OF SPEECH TTITH REASON. 

PAGE 

Grounds and manner of the connexion, the subject of the present 
Chapter— "We find the faculty of Speech in exercise, when Adam names 
the animals — Why are we never informed of man's endowment with this 
faculty ? — Because the gift of language is involved in the gift of a rational 
soul, as colours are involved in the light — Impropriety in supposing the 
names conferred by Adam to have been arbitrary— What is implied in the 
hypothesis that the names designated the properties of the various ani- 
mals, viz. : the mental processes of 1, Observation ; 2, Comparison ; 3, 
Classification— Classification the great characteristic of the Eeason — 
Shown from its being the special endowment of superior minds— Lan- 
guage expresses the classifications of the Eeason — in the every-day em- 
ployment of words, no one thinks of mental processes which gave birth 
to them— Christ, as the Antitype of Adam, giving names to the Apostles 
— The probable meaning of the name Boanerges— Love, and impetuosity 
in behalf of the person loved, two sides of the same character— Digression 
on the spurious charity of the present day— Why the naming of the stars 
should be an attribute of the Divine Being — Our Lord sees our characters 
— What names would He bestow upon us, as significant of them ? . .39 

NOTE. 
On Classification as the great function of the Eeason, .... 55 

CHAPTER HI. 

THE HEAVENLY ANALOGY OF THE CONNEXION OF SPEECH WITH 
REASON. 

The doctrine of the Trinity in Unity can never be thoroughly ap- 
prehended by the finite mind — Partial glimpses into its significance 
attainable — Eeason and Speech closely intertwined — Eecapitulation— 



Contents. 11 

PAGE 

Distinctness of Eeason and Speech— the first seen without the second — 
Impossibility of saying whether Keason or Speech is the earliest ; they 
appear to be twin faculties, though distinct — Man made in the Image of 
God — this Image stands in the mind — this would warrant us in expect- 
ing to find in the mind some adumbration of the Divine Nature — The 
Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the "Word— Illustration of 
the Doctrine of the Trinity, by the conclusions which we have arrived at 
respecting Reason and Speech — How the statement " God is Love " 
seems to involve the notion of more than One Person in the Godhead — 
Address to young men on the discoveries of consistency and beauty in 
the doctrines of Scripture, by those who patiently wait for light in the 
study of God's "Word — Dignity conferred upon Speech by Christ's 
having assumed the title of the Word 5T 



CHAPTER IV. 

AN IDLE WORD DEFINED FROM THE DECALOGUE. 

Large proportion of Scriptural precept directed against sins of the 
tongue— How this is an incidental evidence of Scripture's having come 
from a supernatural source — The tongue symptomatic of the moral state 
— Serious derangement in the natural constitution of all bodies produced 
by the most trifling causes — Analogous mischief done by words in the 
moral system— The Decalogue a summary of the principles of human 
duty— One commandment in each Table directed against sins of the 
tongue — Extreme form of the sin forbidden by the Ninth Command- 
ment—Principle of the Ninth Commandment — The value of a good name 
—Maxim of St. Francis of Sales on this subject — " Evil speaking " as 
well as " slandering " forbidden by the 'commandment— Eeasons why 
" evil speaking " can hardly escape being false — "What the hearers gather 
from the allegation of a fact to our neighbour's discredit — The mischief 
of talebearing— if universally practised, it would subvert trust between 
man and man— General rule, seldom (if ever) to epeak of our neighbour's 



12 Contents. 

PAGE 

character and conduct— Qualifications with which the general rule must 
be understood— yet the qualifications are no real suspension of the rule — 
Spurious charity of the present day— All insincere apologies for, or com- 
mendations of, our neighbour, to he much avoided— The topic of this 
chapter not unevangelical, since the duty advocated in it was exemplified 
hy Our Lord . 71 



CHAPTER V. 

AN IDLE WORD DEFINED FROM THE DECALOGUE. 

Meaning of " the Isame of God" in Holy Scripture — Eesemhlance be- 
tween the Tables of the Decalogue and the two sections of the Lord's 
Prayer — Eesemhlance between the Third Commandment and the first 
petition — How the serious estimate which God mates of "Words is im- 
plied in the sanction of this commandment — Forms of sin forbidden — 
1. All asseverations which imply an appeal to God — Original purport of 
the commandment — Conversational oaths among the Jews in Our Lord's 
time— Account of the dissatisfaction felt with simple affirmations and 
denials — The restraint which men would put upon themselves in a great 
presence — 2. The use of Scripture to give point to a jest — mischievous 
effect of this practice — Our Lord's reverence for Holy Scripture — general 
want of reverence for it at present— 3. Controversial use of sacred words, 
without being duly impressed by them— Difficulty of speaking suitably 
about Divine things — The frame of mind required to do so — Anecdote of 
Sir Isaac Newton — L The duty of speaking about God with unction and 
attractively— how this habit may be acquired— 5. The positive side of the 
Precept exhibited — The obligations involved in the four first Command- 
ments — how the Fourth corrects an error which might arise from a mis- 
understanding of the Third — An habitual consciousness of God's Presence 
the mode of fulfilling the Third Commandment spiritually — The check 
which would be exercised upon our language by the remembrance that 
God's Eyo is always upon us 






Contents. 13 



CHAPTER VI. 
% 

WHAT IS AN IDLE WORD V 

PAGK 
Interest and dignity of exploring the meaning of Scriptural terms — 
Eeference to the context — words, -which the Pharisees had just spoken, 
were such as violated their internal convictions — But it is not this kind 
of words, which our Lord terms idle— formula " but I say unto you " in- 
dicates a transition to a more extended application — Other instances of 
this formula — The word idle means " not fulfilling its end " — Words of 
the Pharisees worse than idle — The strictness of the Christian Law on 
the subject of words, in conformity with the general tenour of Evangeli- 
cal precept— Non-improvement of talents accounted wickedness under 
the Gospel— Eesponsibility entailed upon us by the ascertainment of 
Our Lord's meaning— a fortiori argument on the awfulness of words 
worse than idle 108 

CHAPTER VII. 

WORDS OP BUSINESS AND INNOCENT RECREATION NOT IDLE. 

Frame of mind supposed in the reader— The excellence of any thing 
consists in fulfilling its proper end — First and lowest end of words, to 
carry on the business of life— System of society at a standstill without 
words— Trifling services which may be done by words — Second end, to 
refresh and entertain the mind — Power of speech for the entertainment 
of the mind, analogous to the power of moving the limbs for the recrea- 
tion of the body — Eefreshment of unrestrained intercourse, alluded to 
in a proverb of Solomon's — The excellence of such kind of conversation 
is wit— Connexion of wit and wisdom— Combination of religion and 
merriment in the same person— What may be the meaning of "jesting" 
as forbidden in the Epistle to the Ephesians ?— All precepts of Scripture 
meant to be strictly carried out — the word in question probably indi- 
cates the sinful raillery of the man of fashion— Pleasantry must be 1, 
pure ; 2, must not wound ; 3, must refrain from things sacred . . . 123 



14 Contents. 



NOTE. 

"* PAGE 

On the Perception of Analogies as constituting "Wisdom . . . 13S 



CHAPTEK YIIL 

SPEECH THE INSTRUMENT OE PROPHECY AND SACRIFICE. 

Proposed new punctuation of a passage in the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians — Teaching and admonishing, the highest use of Speech as regards 
man — Psalms and Hymns, its highest use as it looks towards God— Pos- 
sibility of edification on topics not directly religious— Sense in which all 
truth may be said to be a revelation of God— All lights, both of reason 
and experience, are from the Father of Lights — The Laity not precluded 
from the work of Eeligious Edification — Communications with God the 
highest end of Speech — Speech, a resource in man's nature for the carry- 
ing on of such communications — Dignity of the Hymn as combining in- 
telligence with feeling — A poem is a song — Man, in virtue of his endow- 
ment with Speech, the High Priest of God— This doctrine no interfer- 
ence with ministerial functions— Ministers representatives of the people, 
and in their character of representatives, have functions which may not 
be invaded— The ministry of the Christian will outlast that of the Min- 
ister 139 

NOTE. 

On the Analogy between the Threefold aspect of Speech, and the 

Threefold office of Christ 152 

CHAPTER IX. 

HINTS EOR THE GUIDANCE OF CONVERSATION. 

Eecapitulation— Principles laid down in Holy Scripture for the Guid- 
ance of Conversation — Primary reference of the words " swift to hear, 
slow to speak"— Sin of lightly arrogating to oneself the position of a 



Contents, 15 



PAGE 

religious instructor — Subordinate reference of the words of St. James to 
the whole range of Conversation— Precepts of Scripture not to be tied 
down to their contextual application— "We must engage in conversation 
with the desire of gaining instruction— as no man has a monopoly of 
spiritual gifts, so no man has a monopoly of information— every one has 
some portion, however small, of knowledge— The vanity of our thinking 
that this knowledge is not worth drawing out— Sublime studies not al- 
ways the most essential to the well-being of man — Seeking to elicit in- 
formation is one secret of avoiding the irksomeness of conversation — 
Slowness to speak involved in swiftness to hear, but nevertheless re- 
quires distinct pressing— Scripture profound in its analysis of the mo- 
tives, from which evil springs— Principles upon which the intercourse 
of the world is regulated— Selfishness too often manifested by those 
who are endowed with the gift of Conversation — Brilliant conversation 
only unlawful, when it flows from the motive of self-glorification — How 
this motive, operating in a higher sphere, makes a man an Heresiarch — 
Assumption of the Heresiarch that he has a monopoly of God's Truth — 
The fallacy of this assumption— "Weighty words to be aimed at . . 154 

CHAPTEK X. 

ON RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION. 

Eeligious conversation may turn upon 1, religious experience ; or 2, 
religious truth, external to the mind— The distinction illustrated— Anal- 
ogy between the mind of man in its operation upon ideas, and the senses 
in their operation upon matter — Senses so constructed as to throw us 
into the outward world — Hlustrations from sight, hearing, and smell — 
Any reflex action of a sense upon itself would indicate disease in the 
organ — Similarly, the affections operate upon objects external to them- 
selves—the same is the case with the faculties of the mind — Keflex action 
of the affections, or mental powers, upon themselves, indicates disease 
in them— But is not self-examination a reflection of the mind upon its 
own processes ?— true, and it is a necessary duty— but made necessary 



16 Contents. 



PAGE 

by our imperfection— Self-examination had no existence in Paradise — 
Talking of our religions feelings only so far forth desirable, as it con- 
tributes to the end of self-examination — Misehief which may be suffered 
by too free disclosure of our religious feelings— The natural pride of the 
heart takes its occasion from humiliating confessions — Diffusion of re- 
ligious feeling leads to its evaporation — such diffusion counteracts natu- 
ral instincts— shame of moral, as of physical, nakedness — The whole 
"Word of God, with all its truths, presents an ample field for investiga- 
tion — this investigation greatly promoted by Conversation — Disciples 
discussing their difficulties on the way to Emmaus— All Scripture testi- 
fies of Christ— we read amiss, unless we find Him there— Necessity of 
being impressed with the responsibility of the faculty of speech — "Was 
this responsibility the reason why Our Lord sighed, when He restored 
Jhe faculty '—Quotation from Cowper's " Conversation " . . . . 170 

APPENDIX. 

A Sermon on the Government of the Tongue, preached in Engby 
School Chapel 193 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONNEXION OF SPEECH WITH REASON. 

M 2Tf)e time of tyz stnafag of oirUs is come, anti fye botce of t£e 
turtle fs t)ear& m our lanV— Song ii. 12. 

The Divine Founder of our Religion warns 
ns in the most solemn manner against the sin of 
empty and frivolous conversation. His words. on 
this subject are such as to strike an awe into every 
conscience in the ear of which they are sounded. 
" I say unto you that every idle word which men 
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the 
day of judgment." 

Nor is the law behind the Gospel in its protest 
against this particular form of evil. We find such 
a protest inwoven into the most essential part of 
the Law — into that part which is universal in ap- 
plication and binding upon all alike — into the 
very tables of the Decalogue. "The Lord will 
not hold him guiltless," we there read, " who tak- 



18 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

eth His Name in vain " — the implication here be- 
ing that God (and His estimate must be righteous, 
— cannot be harsh) will regard sins of the tongue 
in a light totally different from that in which the 
world regards them. Let it be borne in mind 
that the Ten Commandments are the code of es- 
sential morality for all times, for every generation, 
— that there is nothing in them (considered as a 
rule of life) which has ever been abrogated, or is 
susceptible of abrogation, — that they are not a 
series of arbitrary rules made (as it were) by the 
discretion of the Almighty, but are based upon 
the eternal relations subsisting between God and 
man, between man and his brother ; and it will 
then be seen that every precept which they incul- 
cate (whether directly or by implication) must be 
part of the essence of true religion — must have a 
profound import, and one which we can only trifle 
with at the peril of our souls. 

Now the grounds of this serious view of light 
talking require to be explained. Grounds of 
course there are — God's every word must be 
based upon counsel, — but they do not at once 
approve themselves tcr the mind. So entirely has 
the comparative indifference of words taken pos- 
session of the minds even of religious persons, that 
they find it difficult to fight against the unscrip- 
tural persuasion. Of what sin does even the well- 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 19 

principled and well-conducted man think more 
lightly, than of a profane or hot expression, vented 
in a moment of excitement? And if he were 
assured, as he might be assured on the best of 
grounds, that such a sin has really a very serious 
aspect, probably his understanding would not at 
once acquiesce in such a verdict. He might sup- 
press his understanding (as he ought to do) in 
deference to the testimony of God's Word, but it 
would require some consideration before he could 
bring round his mind to assent to the reasonable- 
ness of that testimony. 

It is the author's purpose to throw together 
some thoughts in the following pages, bearing on 
the important subject of Conversation. He feels 
more and more that one of the greatest hindrances 
to personal piety — that which eats out the heart 
and soul of true religion — is an unrestrained and 
unchastenecl exercise of the tongue, — that if per- 
sons could but be persuaded to banish from their 
lips empty talk (talk relevant to nothing in particu- 
lar, gossip about their neighbours' concerns and 
arrangements, little profanenesses of expression, 
and the like) and to leave only such speech as was 
instructive or amusing (for words of innocent 
humour and wit are surely not idle words) — a 
vast amount of moral and spiritual mischief would 
be swept away as so much rubbish out of the 



20 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

world, and men would be introduced by the effort 
into the atmosphere of holiness, as finding them- 
selves unable to effect such a clearance without 
constant mindfulness of the Presence of God. 
May God abundantly bless what shall be offered 
upon the subject, to our conviction of sin and 
conversion from it, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. 

I propose to begin at the very foundation of 
the subject. This method of proceeding (Bellum 
Trojanum ordiri ab ovo) may be unsuitable indeed 
for a poem, but it is essential to the clearness and 
stability of an argument on graver subjects. 
Thus our first topic will be — 

The Connexion of Speech with Eeason. 

If this connexion can be thoroughly estab- 
lished, if it can be shown that Speech is the great 
organ of Reason, — the sign, proof, and evidence 
that a creature is rational — then the seriousness 
of Speech will at once become apparent. If it be 
impossible to make an ordinary remark, without 
calling into exercise that special gift which dis- 
tinguishes man from the inferior animals, and 
allies him with God and holy angels, then there 
may be some real and deep-seated impropriety in 
making a trifling or light remark, — in doing so 
we may be playing with an instrument of mighty 
power, and degrading it to low and cheap uses. 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 21 

Speech then, as a fact, is connected with Rea- 
son. Reasonable creatures are those who can 
speak, — and conversely those who can speak are 
reasonable. 1 With this fact alone we shall occupy 
ourselves in the present Chapter. Sow Speech 
and Reason are connected will be the subject of 
future consideration. 

We are surrounded by, even as we are com- 
posed of, three elements — Body, Soul, and Spirit. 

I. First, we cast our eyes abroad upon inani- 
mate nature — upon the frame of the earth, the 
trees, the rocks, the water. 

There is no Speech here, — no power of express- 
ing either intelligence or feeling. For Speech is 
not merely the emitting of sounds. It is of course 
obvious that inanimate nature may emit sounds. 
The waves surge, the stream ripples, the avalanche 
crashes, the thunder mutters, the bare arms of the 
trees in winter sway and creak in the wind ; but 
these sounds, however a lively fancy may picture 
in them the voice of nature addressing herself to a 
man, have evidently no affinity with speech. 

Let a man go abroad amid the mountain fast- 
nesses or in the fields, and pour forth his soul to 
nature. Let him previously be wrought up to 
the highest point of passion and interest — let him 
have burning thoughts within him, and long to 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



22 The Connection of Speech with Reason. 

unbosom them. Let him be full of passionate 
grief or ardent enthusiasm, and let him be bent 
upon relief by venting these emotions. Let him 
address the great solitude, as if it had ears to hear 
him, and intelligence to respond. Let him weep, 
let him plead, let him expostulate, let him fling 
himself upon the bosom of the soil, let him call 
heaven and earth to witness, let him attest the 
mountains to his controversy and the strong foun- 
dations of the earth, let him seek to extort a hear- 
ing by e^ery form of appeal which can awaken 
passion, and rouse dormant sympathy ; well, 
what is the response % Nature, to those who seek 
her sympathy, is like Baal to his worshippers. 
u There is neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any 
that regardeth." The great mountains stand in 
grim silence around, unmoved spectators of his 
passion ; or, if they give back sound, it is only 
" jocosa montis imago," — his own words returned 
as if in mockery upon himself. The mimicry of 
his own pleading rings in his ear, and he turns 
away with a bitter sense of the barrenness of 
his efforts. Nature has no intelligence — she can- 
not counsel him with discourse. She has no soul 
— she cannot comfort him with sympathy. 

Imagine now the case of a similar appeal 
made to an animate and rational being. Take as 
an example the tender and urgent expostulations 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 23 

of God with His sinful creature man. God pours 
out His whole heart of love in pleading, — in 
yearning over His prodigal erring child. He 
draws His stirring appeals from every topic, 
which experience proves to carry weight with it. 
At one time He rolls over the sinner's head the 
thunders of retribution — He whispers into the ear 
of the conscience the nearness of death and judg- 
ment. At another, He arrays before him the 
blessings and comforts of a lot which has fallen 
in fair ground, and asks by an inward voice which 
will not be suppressed, whether these do not 
legitimately call for gratitude. At another, He 
pleads in yet more urgent strains the Sacrifice 
which He has provided to win back the allegiance 
of man, — the Sacrifice which testifies to a love 
stronger than death, which the many waters of 
human indifference cannot quench, neither can 
the floods of ingratitude drown it. The God- 
man by His Word, by His Ministers, by His 
Spirit, pleads the wounds which scarred His 
Sacred Body, and the pangs which rent His Holy 
Soul asunder, the strong crying which went up 
to God from the depths of His unfathomable 
anguish, and the bitter tears which, in the days 
of His flesh, the malice of foes and the faithless- 
ness of friends alike conspired to draw from Him 
— well — and is there no response? God be 



24 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

praised, these pleadings have not gone forth into 
the world of spirit — into the world of reason — 
without awakening a reply. The reply is Speech, 
articulate and intelligent. The reply is Prayer 
— no barren empty retort — but a taking of words 
on the part of many, and a turning to the Lord. 
When God's Yoice issues His invitation of Grace 
to all the world, and says, Seek ye My face, an 
answer struggles up to Him from the depth of 
many a conscience, " Thy face, Lord, will I seek. 
Oh hide not Thou Thy face from me, nor cast 
Thy servant away in displeasure." He addressed 
the spirit, or reason, of man, and the spirit com- 
munes with Him by its organ of Speech. 

II. But, in the second place, we are surrounded 
by animated nature — a stage in the creation in- 
finitely higher than that which we have just con- 
sidered. 

But again there is no Speech here, albeit 
there is a dim dark semblance of Speech — some- 
thing which struggles up towards being speech, 
and seems to make an impotent effort to express 
itself in articulate language. For Speech (prop- 
erly so called) is not the expression of feeling, 
but the expression of intelligence or Reason. 
The brute creation, as possessing Soul or affection, 
is capable of expressing feeling. Animals will 
cry when frightened or struck ; the dog has ever 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 25 

been known to moan round the grave when 
bereaved of his master. But the most striking 
exemplification of the susceptibility of animals to 
feeling, and of their power of expressing it, is to 
be found in the notes of birds. " The fowls of the 
heaven," says the Psalmist, "sing among the 
branches." The same phenomenon is noticed in 
the passage which stands at the head of this chap- 
ter — " The time of the singing of birds is come, 
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." 
The music which birds pour forth expresses joy, 
contentment, and satisfaction, feelings of which 
they are no doubt susceptible according to the 
limits of their nature, and the conditions which it 
imposes. Their music, like instrumental music, 
is the effusion and embodiment of sentiment. 
What are the harp and the organ, and those other 
mechanisms which trace up their origiu to Jubal ? 
What are they but instruments for expressing 
feeling, apart from intelligence? And their 
sounds, as being the offspring of affection, touch 
and move the springs of affection. There are, 
indeed, some persons, in whom this source of 
pleasing emotions seems to be sealed up. But 
others there are, in whom the soul predominates, 
and is the key-note to their nature, — who can be 
moved even to tears by strains of music, and 
whose soul, in a varied melody, now rising into 
2 



26 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

exultation, now sinking into plaintiveness, lies 
rocking upon the undulations of the music, as 
fishing-boats heave and fall with a swell in the 
bay. Now birds are Nature's musicians, and the 
song of birds is Nature's music. And thus, 
even among unreasoning creatures, there is an 
expression of sentiment or feeling by means of 
sound. 

III. But how infinitely does this expression 
of feeling fall below Speech, which is the expres- 
sion of intelligence. Only think what Speech is ; 
how wonderful a gift for any creature to be en- 
dowed withal ! That by a few articulate sounds, 
uttered almost with the rapidity of lightning, I 
should be able to summon up a whole train of 
ideas in the mind of another, and those, not 
rough-hewn ideas — not vague and undefined im- 
pressions — but notions nicely chiselled, exact, and 
precise (notions following in an orderly and con- 
secutive arrangement one upon another) — so that, 
for example, a person whom I send to search for 
a thing in my chamber, comprehends by my 
uttering twenty words the precise spot in which 
he is to lay his hand upon it — why this, if we will 
but ponder it, is a miracle — not the less marvel- 
lous for being of daily occurrence. Compare 
with this the utmost verge to which any animal 
can go in the communication of ideas. Some of 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 27 

the domestic animals can convey the feelings of 
gratitude and affection, gladness in recognizing 
their owners, fear of punishment and pain under 
the smart of it ; but what are these mere impres- 
sions of the soul, even when conveyed by sound, 
compared to the Discourse of Reason, in one sen- 
tence of which ideas are ordered, marshalled, and 
communicated with a facility which is only 
equalled by their clearness. Between the sound 
expressive of feeling and the sound expressive of 
intelligence there is a great gulf fixed ; far greater 
than that which separates man from man, the 
kindly but rough peasant from the acutest philos- 
opher. For the peasant may be developed by 
mental training into the philosopher, but no 
training or discipline could develop mere feeling 
into reason. 

We see, then, as a fact in the world around 
us, that Reason and Speech are associated to- 
gether. Where Reason is not found, there Speech 
is not found, and where Reason is, there Speech 
is, as the organ or expression of Reason. 

Two remarks of a practical nature arise from 
what has been said. In the course of our discus- 
sion we have incidentally mentioned the response 
which the human heart makes to God's invita- 
tions of Grace — Speech in the form of prayer and 
praise — the highest form this which Speech can 



28 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

assume. How forcible is the argument against 
vain and light words, which this single thought 
supplies ! The noblest exercise of Speech, its 
most exalted function, its great final cause, is that 
it should be poured forth before the Lord in con- 
fession, supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. 
2sow, viewing the matter in this light, is not this 
of itself sufficient ground to make us think seri- 
ously of Speech ? Does not the evil of an idle 
word become apparent, seeing that it is a degra- 
dation to low uses of a noble instrument ? Is 
there not an obvious impropriety — an impro- 
priety residing in the nature of things — in em- 
ploying a gift, which is destined to such noble 
uses, for purposes of defamation, railing, profane- 
ness, or with the mere frivolous object of whiling 
away time, apart from the motive of improve- 
ment ? I may add, in the language of St. Paul, 
accommodated to my purpose : " Say I this thing 
of myself, or saith not the Scripture the same 
also % " -For is it not written, " With the tongue 
bless we God, even the Father; and therewith 
curse we men, which are made after the similitude 
of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth Mess- 
ing and cursing f " And then what does St. 
James add ? " My brethren, these things ought 
not so to le.^ There is a deep impropriety, a 
folly, and a vice, in these contradictory employ- 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 29 

merits of one and the same organ. How ! shall 
you come into the House of God, and there take 
up into jour lips the inspired strains which flowed 
from the harp of David: or shall you go into 
your chamber, and recite before God the prayer 
which was taught you by the Infinite Wisdom ; 
and then shall you go forth, and employ the same 
tongue in company, to point a profane joke, or to 
launch an unclean innuendo, or to rail against your 
brother on the moment that you are thwarted ? 
"Will you thus take an instrument of the temple 
service and degrade it to the mean end of grati- 
fying temper, or lust, or the desire of saying some- 
thing smart ? Lord, deliver us from the guilt of 
such sin in time past, and from its power in time 
to come ! 

Finally : — One conclusion, to which the truths 
which we have developed conduct us, is the great 
dignity, glory, and beauty of human singing. We 
have seen that the song (as it is called) of the 
bird is expressive only of feeling. There is soul 
in it, but there is no reason. Even without rea- 
son, the outpouring of music, whether from the 
bird's throat or from the instrument, is very 
beautiful. But let reason be added to music. 
Let the expression of feeling be added to the ex- 
pression of intelligence, as is the case in human 
singing. Let the devout sympathies of the heart 



30 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

be made to keep peace with articulate discourse 
respecting God's mercies (as it is written, " I will 
sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the 
understanding also"), and what is the result? 
The result is just- this : the highest active engage- 
ment, in which man can by possibility be em- 
ployed. Intelligence speaking the praises of 
God, while the heart echoes them, what a sublime 
exercise ! How worthy of occupying the facul- 
ties of man throughout eternity ! Therefore it is, 
that in every Scriptural representation of the 
state of glory, we find this hymning of the praises 
of God forming the great staple of the employ- 
ment of the glorified. Are they spoken of as the 
four living creatures, or as the four-and-twenty 
elders? They are represented as falling down 
before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, 
and singing a new song, saying, " Thou art wor- 
thy to take the book, and to open the seals there- 
of : for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to 
God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and 
tongue, and people, and nation." Are they the 
redeemed from among men, who follow the Lamb 
whithersoever He goeth ? They are represented 
as " harpers harping with their harps, and sing- 
ing as -it were a new song before the throne, which 
no man could learn but " themselves. Are they 
those who have gotton the victory over the beast, 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 31 

and over his image, and over his mark, and over 
the number of his name ? They are shown to us 
standing on the sea of glass, mingled with fire 
(that is, on the crystal firmament, in which the 
stars wander and the lightnings play) and singing 
the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the 
song of the Lamb, saying, " Great and marvellous 
are Thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and 
true are Thy ways, Thou King of Saints." 

Lord, when we turn our minds to those 
glorified saints of Thine, we recognize deeply our 
unmeetness to join in that mighty chorus of 
Hallelujah. " Woe is me, for I am a man of 
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a- people 
of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the 
King, the Lord of Hosts." Lord, touch and hal- 
low our lips by the live coal from Thine altar, 
even by His atonement and mediation, "Who was 
a coal of earthly nature, kindled with the fire of 
Divinity. Touch our hearts with love and zeal, 
and out of the abundance of the heart let our 
mouths speak Thy high praise. And by the 
Blood of the Lamb, and through the instrumen- 
tality of sanctified trouble, make us meet to join 
that heavenly chorus, who "rest not day and 
night, saying, Holy, ^loly, Holy, Lord God 
Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and 



32 Note. 

honour and power; for Thou hast created all 
things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were 
created." 



NOTE OX CHAPTER L, p. 21. 

"Reasonable creatures o.re those who can speak — and, conversely, 
those xoho can speak are reasonable." 

In order to justify these two propositions, it is necessary to 
define Speech exactly. 

Speech, then, is the conveyance of ideas from mind to mind in 
logical method. 

By holding fast to this definition, we shall be enabled to see 
our way through cases, which might at first appear to constitute 
exceptions to the above positions. Thus it might be alleged 
against the first of them ("All reasonable creatures speak "), that 
the dumb are reasonable creatures. But the dumb have the 
faculty of speech, though some imperfection in their organs pre- 
vents their exercising it vocally. The essence of speech is not in 
the sound ; otherwise a machine might be made to speak. The 
dumb can not only arrange his ideas in an orderly and methodical 
maimer, can not only throw them mentally into consecutive words 
and propositions, but can convey them, so arranged, to another 
person, by talking on the fingers. 

Against the second position ("All creatures who can speak are 
reasonable ") it might be alleged that birds of the parrot tribe, 
though not endowed with Reason, can speak. But to this also it 
may be replied, that the mere making of articulate sounds, inde- 
pendently of the ideas annexed to them, is not Speech. It is not 
pretended that imitative birds can mentally frame a proposition ; 
and the doing this is part of the essence of Speech. 



Note. 33 

But there are cases among the inferior animals which mount up 
much more nearly to the notion of speech, than that of the parrot. 
I extract oue of these from Sir Benjamin Brodie's Psychological 
Inquiries (p. 192, Second Edition). 

" The observations of M. Dujardin place it beyond a doubt that 
bees have some means of communicating with each other, answer- 
ing the purpose of speech. When a saucer containing syrup was 
placed in a recess in a wall, and a bee conveyed to it on the end 
of a stick which had been smeared with syrup, he remained there 
for five or six minutes, and then flew back to his hive. In about a 
quarter of an hour, thirty other bees issued from the same hive, 
and came to regale themselves on the contents of the saucer. 
The bees from the same hive continued their visits as long as the 
sugar remained in the state of syrup, and fit for their purpose, but 
none came from another hive in the neighbourhood. When the 
sugar was dry, the saucer was deserted, except that every now and 
then a straggler came as if to inspect it, and if he found that by 
the addition of water it was again in a state of syrup, his visit was 
presently followed by that of numerous others." 

On reading this trait of Natural History (and I believe many 
similar instances might be adduced), it might occur to one to ask : 
" Is not this Speech in all its essentials ? The bee who first visited 
the saucer communicated to those in his own hive the intelligence 
that syrup was there — an intelligence of which the bees in the 
adjacent hives did not avail themselves, because ihey had no inform- 
ant." No doubt this appears to have been the case. But there is 
no evidence whatever that the intelligence was communicated by a 
method of arrangement involving Subject, Predicate, and Copula, 
or that bees could so communicate. And how many processes 
of Reason are involved in the logical method of communication, 
will be seen in the succeeding Chapter. It is not every com- 
munication of ideas from mind to mind, which is Speech, but the 
communication of them in logical propositions, which ordinary per- 
sons effect by the mouth, and the dumb by the hand. Exclama- 
tions or gestures might convey to me that a man was in pain, or" 
2* 



34 Note. 

in ecstasy of delight, or that he wanted me to reach him something, 
but no one will dignify these methods of communication by the 
name of Speech. 

With all submission of my judgment to the great scientific 
authority, whose work I hare just quoted, and whose book is 
characterized not only by its patient investigation of facts, and 
refusal ever to outrun their verdict (the great scientific virtue), 
but also by what is far more precious — profound deference to 
Eevealed Religion, I am unable to go along with all his conclusions, 
those especially which relate to the possession of the higher rea- 
soning powers by animals. Thus, for example, he says, in the 
person of Ergates — 

" Setting aside the lowest form of animal life, I apprehend that 
no one who considers the subject can doubt that the menial princi- 
ple in animals is of the same essence as that of human beings ; so 
that even in the humbler classes vie may trace the rudiments of those 
faculties, to which in their state of more complete development we 
are indebted for the grandest results of human genius. "We cannot 
suppose the existence of mere sensation without supposing that 
there is something more. In the stupid carp which comes to a 
certain spot, at a certain hour, or on a certain signal, to be fed, we 
recognize at any rate the existence of memory and the association 
of ideas. But we recognize much more than this in the dog who 
assists the shepherd in collecting his sheep in the wilds of the 
"Welsh mountains. Locke, and Dugald Stewart following him, do 
not allow that brute animals have the power of abstraction. 2s T ow, 
taking it for granted that abstraction can mean nothing more 
than the power of comparing our conceptions, with reference to 
certain points to the exclusion of others : as, for example, when 
we consider colour without reference to figure, or figure without 
reference to colour ; then / do not see how we can deny the existence 
of this faculty in other animals any more than in man himself In 
this sense of the word, abstraction is a necessary part of the pro- 
cess of reasoning, which Locke defines as being the perception of 
the asrreement or disagreement of our ideas. But who can doubt 



JVote. 35 

that a dog reasons, while he is looking for his master, whom he has 
lost ; or (as in the instance of which we were speaking just now) 
when he is seeking his way home over an unknown country ? " 

Crites. 

" But if my recollection be accurate, Dugald Stewart does not 
mean to deny that brute animals are capable of the simpler forms 
of reasoning. He merely states that being unable to carry on 
processes of thought by the help of artificial signs (that is, of 
language), they have no power of arriving at general or scientific 
conclusions." 

Ergates. 

" TTithout doubting for an instant the vast superiority of the 
human mind, still it appears to me to be difficult to say hoio far 
the capacities of brute animals are limited in these respects. It 
is not to be denied that the aid of language is necessary to the 
carrying on any long or complex process of reasoning. But we 
see, nevertheless, that those who are born deaf and dumb reason 
to a great extent ; and, on the other hand, it may well be ques- 
tioned whether some animals are so wholly unprovided with lan- 
guage as Dugald Stewart supposes." 

The incapability of animals to arrive at general or scientific 
conclusions, maintained by Dugald Stewart, and questioned in 
the above passage, seems to me to be perfectly tenable, notwith- 
standing the instances adduced against it. Let it be granted 
(since the result is the same) that a dog finds his master in the 
same way (so far as mental process is concerned) as a man 
or a boy would. He knows his master by sight. (A repeated 
exercise of the senses, united with memory, effects this.) He 
knows his habits. Having accompanied him in his walks, he 
is aware to what places he usually resorts at certain hours. 
He goes to the same places, or in the same direction. In doing 
this he has an additional assistance from the senses (which 



36 Note. 

the man does not enjoy), in the keenness of his scent. Prob- 
ably this keenness of the scent furnishes a large amount of help 
in that much more wonderful phenomenon, adverted to in the 
beginning of the Conversation, and which I myself have known as 
taking place — a dog taken in a carriage and by a circuitous route, 
to a distant place, finding his way back to his former home across 
a tract of country with which he could have had no previous 
acquaintance. 

Probably animals, being much more occupied in the senses, — 
living in them much more tlian men do, are generally far more 
observant of sensible tokens. A man's mind has a wider sphere 
through which to diffuse itself. As he walks or is carried 
through the streets, he muses on future contingencies, or on 
past incidents — his mind is not in the senses — audit, non auscul- 
tat. Hence in many exercises of the mind upon the notices 
of sense, we should expect to find him even inferior to the 
animals. 

But in the instances referred to, I cannot see any evidence 
which shows more in the mind of the animal than memory, and 
close observation. Where is the abstraction ? the generaliza- 
tion ? the perception of law ? any approach to the apprehension 
of a general and scientific truth ? If we must represent by an 
equivalent proposition the idea in the animal's mind, will it 
ever mount above a particular proposition — " This is the man 
whom I saw, or this the road along which I travelled, the 
other day," &c, &c. ? Though indeed to represent it by a propo- 
sition at all, gives probably an errone&us notion, as all propo- 
sitions involve arrangement and classification of ideas. (See next 
Chapter.) 

Does not the author somewhat ignore the old and most true 
distinction between the intellectual efforts (if we are to call them 
so) of animals, and those of men — a distinction which places 
between the two a great and apparently impassable gulf? 
Marts state is susceptible of continual improvement, and his 
civilization of continual progress by fresh discoveries. Reason 



Note. 37 

(as it is possessed by him) is susceptible of a development to 
which we can set no limits. Where is there any thing com- 
parable to this, or at all genencally the same, in the history of 
animals? It cannot, I suppose, be denied that animals, under 
the pressure of particular emergencies, occasionally devise a 
particular method of extricating themselves. They may dis- 
cover a door of resource in a particular case. But can they lay 
down the platform of a general principle, or rear upon it step 
by step the superstructure of an ameliorated and higher con- 
dition of existence? Sir B. Brodie talks of "the republic of 
the rookery." Is that republic one whit better governed now 
than it was when rooks were first created? Has legislation 
advanced among them? He tells us (with great truth and 
force) that "insects are excellent weavers, house-builders, archi- 
tects — that they make diving-bells, bore galleries, raise vaults, 
and construct bridges," &c. The various branches of skill and 
industry are no doubt innate in some of them, and correspond 
to their particular habits and modes of life. Bui have insects 
ever opened up a new resource which they were not at first en- 
dowed with ? If not, why not ? Is it only because they have 
not the mental stimulus necessary to rise above the occasion? 
because they are so constituted, as to acquiesce in a supply of 
the needs of their present state of existence ? because when the 
immediate want is satisfied, there is no further restlessness in the 
mind — no curiosity ? This may partly account for it, but we 
think also that there is much reason to suppose in them, with 
Dugald Stewart, an impossibility of " arriving at general or scien- 
tific conclusions." 

I have not adverted in the text (lest I should too much tres- 
pass upon the religious and practical character of the work) to 
a topic, which yet may find place in a note, as going far to 
establish the very close connexion between Reason and Speech. 
It is a very old debate (into the lights of which it is foreign to 
our present purpose to enter) whether or not it is possible to 
reason mentally, without having the words in the mind, which 



38 Note. 

represent the subjects of our reasoning. Whatever be the truth 
en this moot point, the fact of its being a moot point is suffi- 
cient to establish generally a close connexion between Ecason and 
Speech. 

If a question were raised and discussed, whether or not it is 
possible, under present arrangements, to pay tithes in kind — 
whether or not they may be paid in any other form than that of 
money — this would be a sufficient evidence of a connexion be- 
tween tithe and money, and that the latter is commonly the form 
in which the former appears. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CONNEXION OF SPEECH WITH REASON. 

" &ntr out of t$e tjrounti tlje SHorD (Soli formed cber^ oeast of 
t$e fi'eltr, antr eberg fotol of t$e air ; antr uvoup,f)t t|)cm unto 
gtoaw to see to$at tie toouUi call tljem : antr fo^atsoeber Stoam 
calleU eberi) libitiQ creature, Qat fcoas tj)e name thereof. *»— 
Gen. ii. 19. 

" ?l^e surnames ttjem SSoanerges, tojjjcp is, tjje sons of UmntJcr." 
— Maek iii. 17. 

In the first Chapter we called attention to the 
fact that Speech and Reason are associated to- 
gether. 

In pursuing the topic further, we shall catch 
a glimpse of the grounds and manner of that 
connexion. 

While speaking on subjects of rather an ab- 
stract and philosophical character, I desire, both 
for my readers and myself, that we should keep in 
mind that the end of our discussion is to edify — 
to point out how intrinsically serious and awful a 
gift the faculty of Speech is, and so to illustrate, 



40 The Connexion of Speech icith Reason. 

and show the grounds of, Our Lord's censure of 
idle words. 

The. naming by Adam of the beasts and 
fowls is the first exercise of human Speech upon 
record. 

I say, it is the first exercise of human Speech. 
The faculty of Speech must have existed before. 
In the circumstance of his naming the several 
creatures, it is sufficiently implied that our first 
parent must have been previously endowed with 
the gift, which alone could have enabled him to 
name them. iSot only must the bodily organs 
which are necessary to articulation — the tongue, 
the lips, the palate, the throat, the teeth, — have 
existed previously; but those processes of the 
mind, which are essential to the formation of lan- 
guage, must have been previously developed and 
(to a great extent) matured. 

Kow a question might be raised of this kind. 
Speech being so obvious a characteristic of man, 
why are we never told that man was endowed 
with Speech ? Why is no notice given us, that 
God bestowed upon His noblest creature a gift so 
wonderful ? Why is our attention never called to 
the time at which the grant was made ? Why, 
in short, is the endowment assumed as a matter 
of course ? The answer is obvious. The gift of 
language is involved in the gift of a rationed soul. 



The Connexion of Speech with JSea-son. 41 

And a rational soul is part of the constitution of 
Man; so that no creature is a man without it. 
It having been stated that Man was made in 
God's Image after God's Likeness, and that the 
breath of lives (not life, but lives, i. e. animal, in- 
tellectual, and spiritual life) was breathed into his 
nostrils, it would have been superfluous to add 
that he was endowed with Speech, for that is 
involved in this account of his constitution. The 
following illustration is offered. Suppose we 
were told that a man had manufactured a watch. 
"We should not need to be subsequently informed 
that he had placed a mainspring in the heart of 
it. For a mainspring is essential to the constitu- 
tion of a watch : a watch is not a watch (but only 
the •semblance of a watch) without a mainspring, 
and therefore, when we are informed that he man- 
ufactured a watch, it is implied that he gave it a 
mainspring. Or suppose that those words of In- 
spiration, "God maketh the light," were read in 
your hearing. "Would any man, possessed of a 
knowledge of the subject, think of asking, " "Why 
is it never said that God made colours, that beau- 
tiful raiment of many hues which nature is dressed 
withal, the ruddy streaks of the evening sunset, 
the deep purple of the sea under some conditions 
of the atmosphere, the gorgeous plumage of birds 
in hot climates, and so forth ? " The answer of 



42 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

course is, that in making light, God made colour ; 
all colour is in the light, as you will see by em- 
ploying the prism. In the absence of light there 
is no colour, showing that colour resides not as a 
quality in objects themselves, but is an essential 
property of light. The difference of colour in 
objects is caused merely by some very subtle 
difference of superficies and texture, one superficies < 
or texture absorbing the brighter rays, and reject- 
ing (or reflecting) the more sombre ; while others, 
of directly contrary affinity, absorb the sombre, 
and reflect the bright. Now just as colour inheres 
in light, and is developed out of it, so Speech in- 
heres in Reason ; and, therefore, when it is asserted 
or implied that a creature is rational, it were only 
superfluous to add that he has the faculty or en- 
dowment of Speech. His endowment with Rea- 
son implies as much. 

But now let us look more minutely into the 
narrative of Adam's naming the creatures, and 
consider what other implications respecting the 
gift of Speech may be found in it. 

It is against propriety to suppose the names 
to have been purely arbitrary and unmeaning, to 
have been simply articulate sounds attached with- 
out reason to the various animals. Such an 
hypothesis may be discarded, as not correspond- 
ing with the dignity of the subject. The consti- 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 43 

tuted sovereign of the earth, under whose feet 
were solemnly placed " all sheep and oxen, yea 
and the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the air, 
and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh 
through the paths of the seas," — walks abroad 
upon the domain, which has been newly created 
and furnished for his special service. ' The various 
creatures are made to pass before him in long 
array, — each pauses for a moment to receive his 
searching glance of intuition, — and then the air 
reverberates in distinct accents its name. Shall 
we suppose that in such a name there was no 
suitability, — nothing implying discernment of the 
properties of the animal, — nothing that shed light 
upon its habits, manners, and characteristics? 
Such a notion seems to me untenable upon the 
surface ; it goes to represent the whole transaction 
as a very futile and shallow one. 

Rejecting it, therefore, and adopting the view 
of there being a propriety and significance in the 
names which Adam conferred, let us consider how 
much of previous mental process on his part is 
thus implied. 

The names may have been significant either of 
the physical properties of the animals, or of then* hab- 
its and character. (One instance of a name of the 
former class in the Latin language would be corvus, 
signifying the raven — a word which many etymo- 



44 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

logists regard as identical with the adjective ctirvus, 
crooked, supposing the bird in question to have 
been thus denominated from the crookedness of its 
beak.) Let us suppose then that the beasts and 
fowl were all designated originally on a principle 
similar to this ; that the fox drew his name from 
his cunning, the hare from its quick sense of hear- 
ing, the horse from its neetness, the rhinoceros 
from its impenetrable flakes of natural armour, 
the eagle from the power of its eye. The process 
must have been something of this kind ; and what 
does such a process imply % It implies first gen 
eral notions of cunning, quick hearing, fleetness, 
impenetrability, power of eye. These notions, and 
the words expressing them, must have been 
formed previously in the mind of Adam. And this 
formation of abstract ideas was probably effected 
much as it is now, by observation and experience. 
The child becomes conversant by means of his 
senses with certain objects which agree in some 
one point, which have the same colour, or the same 
form, or which stand in similar relations to some 
other objects. Hence he gains what is called an 
abstract idea, — an idea independent of, and more 
perfect than, any object which he has ever seen. 
The sight of snow, and wax, and wool, and white 
paper, furnishes him with a general idea of the 
colour white. The arrowy rurhing of a rapid 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 45 

river, the rapid careering of some im joked animal, 
the flight of an arrow — these and similar scenes 
open the eyes of his mind to the general notion of 
swiftness. His notions of moral qualities are 
formed in the same way. He has indeed an in- 
nate moral sense ; but it is developed by witnessing 
particular instances of moral conduct. Instances 
in a parent or guardian of impartiality, or the re- 
verse, give birth to his latent ideas of justice and 
injustice. So that, in short, before a child could 
name any object white, or any movement swift, 
or any action just, his mind must have been at 
work. 1st. Observing and noticing things around 
him. 2dly. Comparing them together. 3dly. 
Classifying them according to the results of the 
comparison. To denominate a horse white, he 
must first have noticed several white objects 
(this would demand merely an exercise of the 
senses). Secondly, he must have placed them 
side by side in his mind (this would demand an 
exercise of memory). . Thirdly, he must, by seiz- 
ing upon the point in which they agree, and drop- 
ping the points in which they differ, have reduced 
them under a general head or classified them (this 
would demand an exercise of the powers called 
abstraction and generalization). 

This last power, which we may call the power 
of Classification, I take to be one of the distin- 



46 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

guishing characteristics of the Beason. You may 
classify or generalize too hastily, and so errone- 
ously (the uneducated do so) ; but this affords no 
sufficient grounds against regarding the power of 
Classification as one of the fundamental principles 
of the human Reason. What is the first thing 
which a superior mind does, when it grapples with 
any subject? It classifies; it throws immediate 
light upon the subject by a clear and good division 
of it under heads." Look at such a work as Lord 
Bacon's Advancement of Learning. He takes up 
each subject of human learning, and divides it into 
its branches with an admirable skill. The mere 
division, independently of the comment upon it, 
sheds a very considerable light upon the subject 
itself — its bearings flash upon you as you read the 
dry heads of the topic to be discussed. Again, in 
matters of practical management, how is a great 
mind discerned? When the affairs of a nation 
have got entangled and are in confusion, what is 
the first work of the intellect which professes to 
right them ? Is it not organization ? and what is 
organization but Classification, — the discerning a 
fitness between certain men and certain posts, and 
placing the men in those posts, — the methodical 
devolving of certain functions upon certain seasons 
and certain persons, — the full carrying out, in great 
matters, of the principle which holds in common 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 47 

things, that there shall be a place for every thing, 
and that every thing shall be in its place ? 

Classification, then, is the great work of the Rea- 
son. 1 And it will be observed that Language ex- 
presses the classifications made by the Reason. 
Language does not give us a distinct word for 
every object in the world, — it does not assign to 
things as to men, proper names ; but it gives us 
generic words, embracing whole classes, and so 
susceptible of numerous applications. Take any 
substantive, adjective, or verb, in any language, — 
and you will at once see that the substantive ex- 
presses not one object, but many, — the adjective, 
the quality not of one object, but of many, — and 
the verb not one action, but many. The sub- 
stantive comprises numerous objects, and the verb 
numerous actions, under one head. This is the 
power of Classification in the human miud, putting 
itself forth in words. Hence the intimate connec- 
tion of Speech with Reason. 

Of course it is not intended to convey the im- 
pression, that every one employing Language has 
previously gone through the mental processes of 
observation, memory, and classification, which we 
have described. Certainly not. It is only asserted 
that in the first formation of Language, as in the 
first adoption of it by each individual, these pro- 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



48 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

cesses of mind must have been previously at work. 
Words are the great medium of commerce between 
mind and mind, as coins are the medium of literal 
commerce. And as coins, in passing through many 
hands, become quite worn and smooth, and lose 
all trace of their original minting, so it is with 
words : men fling them about in exchange to one 
another, as current for such or such a significa- 
tion, without ever dreaming of the intellectual pro 
cesses which gave them their origin. But Divine 
Truth, with its heavenly precepts against idle or 
light words, recalls our minds to this origin. It 
bids us see in words the exercise of the human 
Reason. It rubs off the crust and film of usage, 
which has grown over them, and obscured their 
origin, and made us think as lightly of them as of 
pebbles on the sea- shore, and discloses to us their 
lustre, worth, and weight, and above all the image 
and superscription of Reason which they bear 
— Reason, which was itself made in the image of 
God. 

"We turn, however, gladly from the more 
speculative part of the subject (which yet is neces- 
sary in order to the thorough sifting of it) to the 
second passage which stands at the head of the 
Chapter — that passage which brings before us, not 
the first man who introduced fin and death into 
the world, but the second Adam, through whom 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 49 

alone flow pardon, peace, and blessing to the guilty. 
Adam is expressly stated by St. Paul to have been 
a " figure of Him that was to come." And, accord- 
ingly, as we find Adam manifesting his sovereignty 
over nature, by bestowing names on the inferior 
animals, so do we find the Lord Jesus Christ mani- 
festing His sovereignty in His Spiritual Kingdom 
of Grace, by bestowing names upon His Disciples. 
He gives to Simon the name of Peter, to James 
and John the surname of Boanerges, or the sons 
of thunder. 

What the precise signification of the latter 
name, as applied to St. James and St. John, may 
be, has been much disputed. The most probable 
account is, that it has reference to the impetuous 
spirit of the two Apostles, — the spirit which 
prompted the suggestion that fire from heaven 
should be called down upon inhospitable Samari- 
tans. Against this it might be alleged, that St. 
John at least was eminently the apostle of Love, 
that gentleness and charity seem to have been his 
distinguishing graces — that the traditional repre- 
sentation of him by painters gives a cast of femi- 
nine rather than of masculine beauty to the counte- 
nance, — and that impetuosity therefore could not 
have been his leading characteristic. But may it 
not be questioned whether love, and ardent im- 
petuosity in behalf of the person loved, are not two 
3 



50 The Connection of Speech with Reason. 

sides of one and the same character? We speak 
proverbially of the love of women — the tenderness 
of women, — and are not women far more animated 
and energetic than men, when one upon whom 
they have fastened their entire affection is assault- 
ed ? Is not their pride in the person they love, 
and their jealousy on behalf of that person, far 
more keen and susceptible than the pride and 
jealousy which the harder sex feel for their friends ? 
Which of the two, think you, would most vehe- 
mently resent an injury done to a son, or a slur cast 
upon him — the father or the mother % I think the 
mother. And I think that something of this 
feminine impetuosity of spirit is manifest in the 
writings of the Apostle of Love. It is hallowed, 
of course, and chastened by the Spirit of God, 
which rested upon him as he wrote, but still there 
is the trait of natural character which gave rise to 
the surname Boanerges. We hear the thunder 
when he writes respecting " those who confess not 
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," such a 
censure as the maudlin liberality of the nineteenth 
century would pronounce uncharitable : " If any 
man come unto you, and bring not this doctrine, 
receive him not into your house, neither bid him 
God speed." And if tradition may be trusted, he 
acted in the spirit of this precept, when, hearing 
that Cerinthus the heretic was in the bath-house, 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 51 

he fled from the baths, lest the roof of the building 
should fall in upon the assailant of divine truth — 
thus carrying out the principle laid down in the 
matter of Korah — "Remove, I pray you, from 
these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest 
ye be consumed in their sins." I cannot refrain 
from digressing a moment from our topic, to re- 
mark how strangely these words and these actions 
are at variance with the spirit of the generation on 
which we are fallen. To us such a mode of speak- 
ing and acting appears illiberal. And why % I 
believe the account of this alteration in the feel- 
ing of Christians towards those who deprave or 
deny God's Truth, to be simply this : Love is 
waxed cold, as the Lord Himself predicted it 
should. We of this century have no love of Christ, 
or but a faint and chilled love ; and accordingly 
we have no jealousy for His honour, and no sensi- 
tiveness to any slight which the irreverent seekers 
of a carnal wisdom may put upon Him. And our 
utter indifference to Him we represent to ourselves 
and others under the extraordinary name of liber- 
ality ! Oh ! we could not say Anathema Mara- 
natha to those who love Him not, we could not 
fling a sentence of excommunication at any soul 
of man, we could not refuse our hand, nor a place 
under our roof, even to the worst heretic that ever 
traversed God's Earth ! If a man announces to all 



52 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

the world that he considers Him, upon whom my 
hopes rest for time and for eternity, my Lord and 
my God, my guide through life, my support in 
death, — to be but a mythical character, the crea- 
tion of man's brain, the fabulous impersonation of 
perfect virtue (or some such nonsense) — I can hear 
the announcement without wincing, — I am too 
liberal forsooth to evince any righteous indigna- 
tion ! But it is well for me to understand that 
this liberality of mine is so far from being love, 
that it is actually one feature of the want of love. 
If I were a son of love, I should he in my measure 
a son of thunder also. But having a cold heart 
— my regards for the Saviour being faint and feeble 
— I can bear to hear even His existence canvassed 
with true nineteenth century charity. But I have 
none of the charity of the first century, — none of 
the charity which called Elymas the sorcerer " a 
child of the devil, and an enemy of all righteous- 
ness," — none of the charity, whose accents, as 
directed against error in principle, and vice in prac- 
tice, were these : " Ye serpents, ye generation of 
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ?" 
Such is the account which I should be dis- 
posed to give of the significance of the name 
Boanerges, as applied to St. James and St. John. 
But whether or no we can discern the significance 
of the name, most certain it is that it was emi- 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 53 

nently significant, as being conferred by Him who 
knew what was in man, and lias an insight into 
the secret character of all His creatures. 

To name any thing truly according to its char- 
acter, implies of course an insight into its charac- 
ter. For which reason it is specially mentioned as 
one of the attributes of God, that He names the stars. 
u He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth 
them all by their names." JSTo man can name the 
stars appropriately (he may give them names drawn 
from the resources of his fancy — from imaginary 
figures in which they are grouped) ; but no man 
can give them names expressive of their character, 
because in truth he knows not what they are. 
What is a planet ? Is it a vast globe of super- 
fluous fluid, — a repository of waters, dispensed 
with by the great Artificer in the formation of 
the earth, and now wheeling round on the skirts 
of the mundane system % or is it an abode of life 
and intelligence, possibly the home and haunt of 
angels ? And what is a fixed star ? Is it a sun 
of other systems? or is it a shred-coil of luminous 
star-dust, the fragment of a nebula % We may 
speculate on these things, and form or assail 
theories on the subject — but we are totally igno- 
rant of the true character of a star, and so must 
remain, unless the range of our telescopes is enor- 
mously enlarged — an enlargement, the mechanical 



54 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

difficulties of which would be probably insupera- 
ble. The nature of a star is a mystery — and, con- 
sequently, the naming of a star is an attainment 
beyond our reach. 

We have spoken of Our Lord's intimate knowl- 
edge of the character of His disciples, a knowl- 
edge which He evinced in naming them. It is 
well to remind ourselves that He has a perfect 
knowledge of our characters — could at once pro- 
nounce the name which would most suitably ex- 
press them. His eyes, which are as fire, penetrate 
through all disguises, and read the ruling passion, 
the besetting sin, under every mask of outward 
circumstance and position. He has read our 
secret history from childhood: not that history 
which has been patent to the world, but that 
which has been transacted in the inner man, in 
the depths of our consciousness. Does He see that 
we are His indeed % that amid all the blackslid- 
ings of certain portions of our lives, amid all the 
intricacies of feeling and motive, amid all the 
alternating conflicts of passion and principle, 
there is in us a true and loyal heart ? Let us but 
put this question to our consciences solemnly, 
and compel from them an honest and candid an- 
swer to it ; — and we shall not have closed without 
benefit a Chapter, which to some may have ap- 
peared too abstruse and speculative for a religious 



Note. 55 

treatise, on a subject so eminently practical as 
that of the Idle Word. 



NOTE ON CHAPTER II, p. 48. 

Classification is the great worlc of the Reason. 

In confirmation of this remark, it will be observed that the 
vices of the Reason resolve themselves into faulty classifications. 

The first fault of the uneducated — the fruitful mother of all 
superstition — is over-hasty Classification. Two things associated 
accidentally (the wearing, for example, of a charm, and a recovery 
from illness) the uncultivated mind associates generally, and re- 
gards as essentially connected with one another. This is an in- 
stance of the vice of hasty Classification in its rudest form. 
Among the educated, the same vice shows itself in other forms. 
One notorious property of stupid people is their incapability of 
apprehending a distinction. They have laid down a rule, to which 
they doggedly adhere in cases which are obviously exceptional — 
or they entertain some cherished view, under which they reduce 
all cases which have some superficial affinity with it. Thus they 
reckon things homogeneous, and class them under one head, 
which really have profound discrepancies. 

But there is an opposite defect of the Reason, — and it is one 
of refinement and over-cultivation. It is popularly termed the 
making a distinction without a difference. Legal acumen will 
often develope distinctions of this kind — distinctions of the 
subtlest character, and which in truth have no existence. If we 
would reason aright, we must neither classify too roughly nor dis- 
tinguish too finely — we must steer a mean between the two 



I shall illustrate further the two faulty processes, by pointing 



56 Note. 

out the way in which they manifest themselves in the exposition 
of Holy Scripture. 

Several of Our Lord's Parables are, by a person who does not 
minutely study them, classed roughly together as conveying pre- 
cisely the same lessons. Thus, the Parables of the Pounds and 
the Talents are supposed to have precisely the same scope. The 
Lost Sheep, the Lost Piece of Money, and the Prodigal Son, are 
all regarded as Parables on Repentance — and the distinguishing 
details dismissed or overlooked. In the hands of a great scholar 
and divine (like Archbishop Trench) each of these Parables has 
its peculiar lessons and delicate applications — and the similarity 
between them is no longer specific — only generic — they are seen 
to differ as much as various species of grain differ, while all are 
grain. 

The opposite defect of over-refinement and multiplying dis- 
tinctions, is seen in the proceedings of the Harmonists. Where 
two narratives of Scripture obviously refer to the same event, 
they are induced, by some trifling discrepancy of detail, to regard 
them as occurring on different occasions — a flagrant improbability 
on the score of common sense. Two witnesses giving truly their 
account of the same event, would never do so without superficial 
discrepancies— for no two minds refract the same event at pre- 
cisely the same angle. 

What is it that is faulty in the man who generalizes hastily, 
and the man who distinguishes too finely ? It is the Eeason, the 
mind, the judgment. 

Therefore, Classification is an essential property of the Eeason, 
and according as it is justly or viciously performed, the Reason, 
is in a sound or unhealthy state. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE HEAVENLY ANALOGY OP THE CONNEXION OF 
SPEECH WITH REASON. 

" fin t|)e btQinnmQ toas X\)t W&qxXi, atrtr tije 312?or& toas hntf) 
(£otr, attir t$e ®5^ortf toa» (£ofcf." — John i. 1. 

The doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is the 
great mystery of the Christian Religion. For 
surely of all mysteries that mnst be the deepest 
and most mysterious, whose subject is the Nature 
of the Invisible and Infinite God. 

If then upon all lesser mysteries we can expect 
only partial light, while here below ; much more 
is it reasonable to suppose that upon this " mys- 
tery of mysteries " a cloud will ever rest. Of 
Jehovah it is written that " clouds and darkness 
are round about Him." His nature and attri- 
butes must be ever (more or less) shrouded to the 
human intellect — at all events while " confined 
and pestered in this pinfold here," — while cooped 
3* 



58 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

within the trammels of an animal nature. The 
most which the wisest and holiest man in the 
world can hope to apprehend of such a mystery, 
is but little. 

Still, as the doctrine of the Trinity is unques- 
tionably the Truth of God, and the Truth cannot 
really be at variance with an enlightened Reason, 
— we may hope without presumption, under the 
guidance of Scripture and the illumination of the 
Holy Ghost, to gain partial glimpses into its sig- 
nificance — glimpses like those which, through the 
tumbling sea of mist beneath his feet, a wanderer 
in the mountains catches of a patch of verdure on 
the bosom of the hill, as a slant ray of sunshine 
shoots athwart his path — glimpses sufficient to 
make us easily believe that, if the full fiood of 
Divine Light could but be poured upon the soul, 
as it will be in the day when " we shall know 
even as we are known," the whole doctrine would 
stand before us in all its proportions, as a fact 
absolutely necessary and essential, and harmoniz- 
ing with all other facts in the whole compass 
of Truth. 

The prosecution of the subject, of which these 
pages treat, leads us naturally to an illustration of 
this Cardinal Mystery. 

We saw, in our first Chapter, that Speech or 
Language is, as a fact connected with Reason, 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 59 

Eeasonable beings are those who can speak — and 
conversely, all who can speak are reasonable 
beings. The apparent exceptions to this rule have 
been already * considered. On the one hand, it 
might be alleged that the dumb are reasonable 
beings, — yet the dumb cannot speak. Reason, 
therefore, it might be argued, may exist without 
Speech. To this it may be answered that actual 
sound is not essential to the faculty of Speech. 
Speech is the faculty of conveying to other per- 
sons (not mere feelings and emotions, but) the 
processes of the understanding. The dumb can 
do this (and with marvellous intelligence) upon 
their fingers — showing hereby that they possess 
the essentials of Speech. 

Again it might be alleged, though perhaps 
more wantonly than in earnest, that the whole 
tribe of imitative birds speak, and employ certain 
words; — yet these birds are not rational. It is 
not therefore true that all creatures which can 
speak are reasonable creatures. But here again 
it may be answered that sound — even articulate 
sound — is not the great essential of Speech. 
Speech is the power of conveying to persons in log- 
ical method the processes of one's own understand- 
ing. Birds, which imitate the human voice, are 
imitators and nothing more : the words which they 
1 See Note to Chapter I. 



60 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

speak they never originate, but catch them up from 
men, — nor is there the remotest proof that, when 
they utter them, they connect with them any in- 
telligent meaning. 

And let me, by the way, call attention to the 
circumstance, that an Echo stands in the same re- 
lation to Inanimate Nature in which an imitative 
Eird stands to Animated Nature. An Echo is the 
mimicry of Speech oy matter. The language of 
an imitative Bird is the mimicry of Speech hy 
Animated Nature. Neither Matter nor animated 
Nature can really speak — neither of them can 
communicate to others (in method of disco arse) 
ideas originated by themselves. But they can 
imitate Speech — or rather they can imitate its out- 
ward form, — of the intelligence, which constitutes 
its essence and spirit, they are not partakers. 

We must be prepared then to admit that 
Reason and Speech are essentially connected to- 
gether, intertwined one with another. The Homer- 
ic epithets /xepoi/> and avdijeig (articulate speaking) 
characterize the rational creature Man. The 
power of Speech inheres in the faculty of Reason. 
Reason is revealed by Speech. Speech is the 
unfolding, the manifestation, the development, 
the communication, the message, the utterance, 
the outcoming, the revelation of Reason. 

Yet, though essentially interwined, — though 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 61 

Reason implies the power of Speech, and the 
power of Speech implies Reason, — Reason and 
Speech are clearly different faculties. Do you 
wish to see them apart, in order to ascertain their 
distinctness ? We can show them to you in sev- 
erance one from another, or rather, we can show 
them to you, one latent, and the other active. 
Take the case of a man completely absorbed in 
his own reflections, — Sir Isaac Newton, for exam- 
ple, engaged, after seeing the apple fall to the 
ground, in thinking out the law of gravitation. 
Wrapped in deepest calculation and self-commun- 
ing, he sits with eyes cast down, and arms folded, 
and utters not a word. Speak to him — call him 
by name — he does not answer, he is dumb — his 
mind is abstracted from the outer world. Lay 
your hand on the shoulder of such an one, — he 
looks up with an exclamation of surprise, and you 
say to him — " So you have found your tongue, 
have you ? " Perhaps it is to be reckoned among 
the accuracies of language, that we do not say, 
" You have found your Speech" but " You have 
found your tongue" — hereby implying that the 
faculty of Speech was latent in him all the while, 
but that its instrument, the tongue, had been 
without exercise. Yes, — he had not spoken, — he 
had not exercised the faculty of communicating 
his ideas to others, — but he had been reasoning 



62 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

all the time, and if Sir Isaac Newton be the 
case imagined, reasoning to some purpose. There 
is an instance of Eeason, independent of Speech. 

However, it might suffice to say, by way of 
proving their distinctness, that the words Eeason 
and Speech on the surface convey distinct ideas to 
every mind. 

And yet, distinct as these things are, Speech 
is wrapped np in Eeason ; — so that wherever the 
faculty of Eeason is, there , the faculty of Speech 
must be. This was proved in the last Chapter, 
where we showed that Human Language supplies 
us with a classification of objects, by assigning 
generic words to embrace a great number of indi- 
viduals. To classify, however, ; is, as we then 
pointed out, the work of the mind. It is the 
mind which, contemplating objects, arranges them 
under different heads. Wherever the mind or 
Eeason exists, it must have this power, latent in 
it, of contemplation and arrangement, and accord- 
ingly, wherever the mind is, there must be in em- 
bryo the faculty of Speech. So that if we were 
asked which of the two is the earlier — the Eeason 
or the Speech — our answer must be, that they are 
so inextricably intertwined together, that neither 
the one nor the other is the earlier. They are 
coeval. They are twin faculties, the moment of 
their birth the same. May we not say that in a 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 63 

child, as a general rule, the development of Speech 
keeps pace exactly with the development of the 
understanding ? 

So it is with Light and Colour, which I have 
already employed as an illustration. Colour and 
Light are distinct things. We have distinct no- 
tions, when we pronounce the words Colour and 
Light. But, as Colour inheres in the Light, — is 
a natural property of the Light, — it is impossible 
to say with Truth either that Colour existed before 
Light, or that Light existed before Colour. They, 
too, are twin births. At the same point of time, 
when the Most High issued His first creative fiat, 
Light sprang into existence and Colour with it. 

IsTow we are told in the first Chapter of Gene- 
sis, that Man was made " in the Image of God." 
We cannot understand this assertion of the Body 
of Man. For God is incorporeal — " He is a 
Spirit," saith the Scripture ; — as the first of our 
Articles assures us, " He hath neither Body, Parts, 
nor Passions." We are driven then to the con- 
clusion that the resemblance between God and 
Man — the " Image," which was originally stamped 
upon our Nature in the minting of it, — stands in 
the Mind or Intelligence, — in that part which dis- 
criminates us from the brute creation. I say in 
that jpaH which discriminates us from the brute 
creation ; — for that it does not stand in the soul 



64 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

or animal nature, may be inferred from the cir- 
cumstance that brutes have this animal nature, 
and yet the Image of God is never said to have 
been impressed upon them, The Spirit or Mind 
of Man, then, presents us with an Image of God ; 
and in examining the Spirit or Mind of Man, we 
may expect — we are warranted by Holy Scrip- 
ture in expecting — to find some adumbration, 
some dim shadowy outline, of the Nature of the 
Most High. 

If, however, we had only this notice of Holy 
Scripture, it would behove us to be very cautious 
indeed in drawing inferences from it. The sub- 
ject is one upon which Angels may well fear to 
tread, — into which only a fool would rush with 
presumptuous curiosity. At the same time, while 
it is a point of reverence and right feeling not to 
seek to be wise "beyond what is written, it is also 
a point of holy ambition, to seek to be wise up to 
that which is written. And there is another 
passage (or rather there are many other passages 
of Holy Scripture) which throw a singular light 
upon the subject before us. They are those in 
which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity 
is called " the Word." " In the beginning " (thus 
opens St. John's Gospel ; — how like an oracular 
voice, dropping from heaven, it sounds, — how full 
of mystery and sublimity ! ) " was the Word, and 



Connexion of Speech loith Reason. 65 

the "Word was with. God, and the "Word was God." 
This term, " the Word," was not original with St. 
John. It was a term mnch employed by the 
Gnostic Heretics, to denote an emanation from 
the Deity. St. John takes it np, and adopts it, 
and applies it to Our Blessed Lord as the true 
Emanation from God. But it matters uot at all 
whether he invented the terra, or adopted it. As 
he has adopted it, it has now the seal of Inspira- 
tion, — and we must believe that in the term, as 
applied to Our Lord, there is a deep significance, 
which perhaps a prayerful consideration, and 
comparison of other in spired notices, may reveal 
to us. 

Man's Eeason was framed in the Image of 
God, — and Our Lord is called the Word; those 
are the two Scrip tural intimations, which guide 
us by the hand into part of the truth respecting 
the Divine [Nature. 

We have seen that Eeason involves a thing 
distinct from itself, namely, Speech, or the power 
of communicating the processes of the Eeason — 
so that whosoever has the faculty of Eeason, has, 
in the faculty of Eeason, the faculty of Speech or 
of the Word. 

We have seen that though Eeason wraps up 
Speech in itself, yet we can conceive of Eeason as 



66 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

energizing latently, and of the faculty of Speech 
as having no exercise. 

And we have seen that neither Reason nor 
Speech can make any claim to priority of exist- 
ence — that they are twin faculties, born at the 
same instant. 

Now listen to what the Holy Catholic Church 
has gathered from the Scripture respecting the 
Nature of God. 

First, she says, that there is a Teinitt m Unity, 
that is, more than one Person in the Divine Na- 
ture. Man's spirit, the Bible says, was made in the 
Image of that Nature. And in Man's spirit there 
are at all events two faculties, Reason and Speech. 
The Son, or Second Person in the divine Nature, 
goes by the name of " the "Word of the Father," 
that is, He stands to the Father in the same rela- 
tion as that in which the "Word, or Utterance, or 
Speech, stands to the Reason or Understanding. ' 

Secondly : St John intimates that there was a 
period when, although both Blessed Persons exist- 
ed, yet the Son was wrapped in the bosom of the 
Father, — when, though the Word was, yet the 
"Word came not forth. " The only begotten Son, 
which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath de- 
clared Him." That is like Reason, with the fac- 
ulty of Speech latent in it, — not put forth. 

Thirdly : the Church holds and proclaims that 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 67 

the Majesty of these Persons is "Co-eternal ; that 
" the Father is eternal, and the Son eternal also " 
— that therefore to attribute priority of existence 
to the Father, would be to fall into the very heresy 
of Arras, condemned by upwards of three hundred 
Bishops assembled in Council at ]Slcsea. The 
adumbration of this in the human spirit is that 
twin birth of Reason and Speech, to which we 
have already called attention. They are both (as 
we have seen) coeval. 

" But," an opponent might reply, " the Catho- 
lic Doctrine is, that in God there are not only 
two distinct faculties (which I could understand, 
and to some extent realize) — but two distinct Per- 
sons." -No doubt it is so. And perhaps it can 
be shown by means of another intimation of 
Scripture, that at all events there must be more 
than one Person in the Godhead. For it is writ- 
ten that " God is love " — that love is the essential 
nature of God. Love was His nature, long ages 
before the World began, before there were any 
human beings to love, before those morning stars 
of creation dawned upon the brow of time, — before 
the angels had sprung into existence. God was 
Love from all eternity. But what does Love 
imply ? Does it not imply a Person, or Persons, 
to be loved ? If there was only one Person in the 
Universe, a gigantic solitude reigning all around 



68 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

him, could He be Love % would it not be subvert- 
ing the definition of Love, to say that He was so % 
The fact is, that what St. Paul says of a Mediator, 
is true of Love — " a Mediator is not a Mediator of 
otxe ; " — there must be two parties to make him 
a Mediator. Similarly we may say, " Love is 
not of one." It, too, implies more than one 
party. 

"We may learn from what has been said that 
there is no doctrine of the Scriptures and the 
Church, however mysterious on the surface, 
which will not by and by reveal to us something 
of its propriety and harmony, if we diligently 
read the Word of God with thought and prayer, 
and patiently ponder and compare its statements. 
The first point which it becomes us to ascertain, is, 
that the Holy Scriptures are from God. There 
are many books of evidence (which it is now the 
fashion to depreciate) which have quite set this 
question at rest for every impartial and candid in- 
quirer. "When it is set at rest in your mind, then 
the remainder of your path is clear. You must 
accept every thing which God says in the Scrip- 
ture, however many difficulties it may present to 
your Reason. But your difficulties shall diminish 
daily, if you will patiently read on, fastening your 
belief on the sure testimony, and praying ear- 
nestly for the Light of the Spirit. Beautiful dis- 



Connexion of Speech iBith Reason. 69 

coveries shall burst upon you, as you pursue this 
course, — discoveries which shall have in them an 
element both of intellectual and spiritual enjoy- 
ment, until at length, disenthralled from the body, 
"we shall know even as also we are known." So 
have I seen a traveller catching at first through 
tangled boughs disjointed glimpses of some great 
City, to which he is journeying, but by and by he 
emerges from the woodland, and a sudden turn 
brings him to the open brow of a hill, and there, 
beneath his feet, lies the City, in the clear out- 
line of its fair proportions, its pinnacles smit- 
ten by the sun, and the silver river intersecting 
its thronged maze of streets. 

We have seen, Reader, that Speech in the 
nature of man, represents Christ in the Nature 
of God. This, independently of the Connexion of 
Speech with Reason, impresses a value and a 
dignity upon the faculty of Speech. When you 
reason, and communicate to others the results of 
your reasoning, you are adumbrating in the limits 
of a finite nature the Nature of the Infinite One. 
Would you take any thing which represents 
Christ, and was intended to remind us of Christ, 
and make it the instrument and minister of sin ? 
Would you, for example, take the consecrated 
elements of the Eucharist, representing (as they 
do) His Body and Blood, and devote them to the 



70 The Heavenly Analogy, <&c. 

purposes of intemperance and excess ? and shall 
any child of man take this faculty of speech, and 
degrade it in vain, or profane, or unclean com- 
munications, making it the instrument of morally 
corrupting others, and of being morally corrupted 
himself % 

Son of God, Only Begotten of the Father, who 
hast sanctified the utterance of the human lips, by 
taking unto Thyself the title of the Word, touch 
their hearts with penitence, who have so offended, 
and, as we would all flee from the contagion of a 
pestilence which can terminate only in death, so 
make us to flee from the moral pestilence of filthy 
talking and idle words, and set Thy watch and 
seal upon the door of our lips ! 






CHAPTEE 17. 

AN IDLE WORD DEFINED FROM THE DECALOGUE. 

•* ffi$ou sj&alt not so tip anU troton as a talebearer antons t$s 
people." — Leyiticus xix. 16. 

Solomon echoes this precept of the Law in his 
Proverbs : — " A talebearer revealeth secrets : but 
he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the mat- 
ter." And again, chap. xx. 19 : u He that goeth 
about as a talebearer revealeth secrets : therefore 
meddle not with him that nattereth with his lips." 
And in echoing the precept, the wise king illus- 
trates it. For the law contains a simple prohibi- 
tion, without a reason assigned. But Solomon 
gives a reason. One chief mischief of talebearing 
is that the talebearer is apt to repeat things which 
have been told him in confidence ; or, at all events, 
which had much better be considered as con- 
fidences, even if they were not communicated on 
that express understanding. 



72 An Idle Word 

It is a startling fact that so large a proportion 
of the preceptive part of the Bible should deal 
with sins of the tongue, and deal with them so 
severely. I cannot help thinking that this feature 
of the Scriptural code is an incidental evidence of 
its having come from a supernatural Source, or, in 
other words, being inspired. For probably no 
human treatise of moral philosophy ever gave to 
words such an importance as the Holy Scriptures 
assign to them. Certainly Aristotle's great trea- 
tise on human duty ignores words altogether. 
And one can see that in any estimate of moral 
subjects made by mere Reason, the words of men 
(as being after all a passing breath) would be 
taken little account of, aud the attention fastened 
simply on their actions and sentiments. But not 
such is the estimate of Him, whose " thoughts are 
not as our thoughts." Throw all the precepts of 
the Old and New Testament into one code ; and 
how very large a proportion of them will be found 
to. turn upon words! "What a serious, austere 
view the Sacred Writers' take of what man would 
call slips of the tongue ! None more serious and 
austere than Our Blessed Lord Himself, who yet 
was by no means an austere man, who came eat- 
ing and drinking, and went into all societies, 
shunned no company, and whose Sacred Heart 
was a fountain of most pure and beautiful com- 



defined from the Decalogue. 73 

passion, in which was mirrored the Love of the 
Eternal Father, and the sympathy of God with 
all His creatures. The Pharisees, convinced of 
the Divine Mission of Christ, had been belying 
their convictions by attributing His works to 
Beelzebub, and inwardly flattering themselves 
doubtless with the thought that their disbelief lay 
in words only, not in the sentiments of the heart. 
Our Blessed Lord solemnly warns them that this 
discrepancy between words and sentiments was in 
fact the unpardonable sin ; the sin against the 
Holy Ghost; and then, as His manner was, 
coming down from the extremest form of the sin 
He was condemning to its milder and more ex- 
cusable shapes, He said, " But I say unto you, That 
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall 
give account thereof in the day of Judgment." 

And where Our Lord sets the keynote, all the 
writers of Holy Scripture chime in unison. Ex- 
tract all the verses of the Book of Proverbs, which 
have reference to foolish talk, bad talk, or too much 
talk ; and you will have a very large number of 
verses. Add to these the precepts of St. Paul 
forbidding corrupt communication, and prescribing 
speech with grace seasoned with salt. Close the 
list with that paragraph of St. James's Epistle, 
which forms the body of the third chapter, and 
which speaks in such awful terms of the wide- 
4 



74 An Idle Ward 

spread mischief done by sins of the tongue, and 
with that later passage of the same Epistle, in 
which the Apostle reiterates with emphasis the 
caution against swearing contained in the Sermon 
on the Mount, " But above all things, my breth- 
ren, swear not ; " and you have not only a portion 
of space devoted to this subject which seems to mere 
Reason disproportionate to its merits; but also, 
which is more remarkable, the warnings against 
this class of sin are more deeply serious in tone than 
those against almost any other. - 

ISTow whatever we may imagine in the vanity 
of our minds, we may be quite sure that the "Word 
of God has Reason on its side. And we may be 
quite sure also that we shall have a glimpse of that 
Eeason, if we will but look for it carefully and de- 
voutly. Physicians, it has been well said, make 
an immediate and accurate judgment of health by 
the state of the tongue. And there is the same 
connexion between a healthy tongue and a healthy 
condition of body as between a sound heart and 
sound wholesome words. The tongue is symp- 
tomatic in both cases. Om* Lord says so. "A 
good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, 
bringeth forth good things : and an evil man, out 
of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things ; " 
" Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh," 



defined from the Decalogue. 75 

But there is another analogy between mental 
and bodily health, which is still more to the point. 
Serious derangement in the natural constitution 
of all bodies is often produced by the most trifling 
causes. The blight which destroys some article of 
sustenance, the pestilence which lays low its thou- 
sands and tens of thousands, is perhaps traceable to 
the presence in the air, or in food, of certain very 
minute animalcules, which are taken into the plant 
through its leaves, or into the human system 
through the lungs. These animalcules are possibly 
so small, that it requires a powerful microscope to 
discover them. And in the body itself the ulti- 
mate molecules, whose arrangement constitutes 
health or disease, are so very insignificant that in 
many cases the disorder could never be ascertained 
by the eye. An almost infinitesimal quantity of 
poison, insinuated into the living body through a 
puncture or a scratch, will spread like wildfire 
through the system, and either communicate 
mortal disease, or cause mortification in a vital 
part. These are all instances in Nature, in which 
agents, trifling in bulk and to the eye, have yet a 
most potent effect on the entire frame, both of 
vegetables and animals. Why should there be no 
such agents — agents of similar apparent insignifi- 
cance, agents of similar deadly force — in the moral 
world ? We believe that there are such. We be- 



76 An Idle Word 

lieve that words are such an agent. Things in 
themselves light and insignificant, blown np like so 
many bubbles from the surface of the character, to 
burst as soon as they are formed. Things said in 
a moment of excitement, and forgotten as soon as 
the excitement which gave birth to them is over. 
Things as transient as the morning cloud and 
the early dew. But it does not follow that they 
are unaccompanied by serious effects. The moral 
frame of each one of us is, like the animal frame, 
continually taking in influences, and assimilating 
nourishment from all sorts of sources. The words 
of other men, the casual expressions of their sen- 
timents, have a strong influence upon our char- 
acters. Our own words have a reflex influence 
upon ourselves ; not only coming from the heart, 
but reacting upon the heart which sent them 
forth. 

Thus far, we have offered some observations 
which may justify our regarding the Idle Word as 
a matter of sufficient importance to form the sub- 
ject of a separate treatise. In this and the follow- 
ing chapter we propose to define " an Idle Word " 
from the Decalogue, before considering the sig- 
nificance of Our Lord's language in so denominat- 
ing it. The whole of human duty really founds in 
the Decalogue. There is no precept of the Gospel 
which is not to be found in germ and principle in 



defined from the Decalogue. 77 

the Ten Commandments given to Israel on Mount 
Sinai. And the more we study those ten com- 
mandments, the more shall we be impressed with 
the great perfection of the outline of Human 
Duty, which is here traced by the finger of God 
Himself. 

The Decalogue falls, as we all know, into two 
tables, one of which guides man in his relations to 
God, the other in his relations to his fellow-men. 
JSTow it is surely observable that in each Table 
there should be a precept respecting words ; in the 
first, " Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord 
thy God in vain ; " in the second, " Thou shalt not 
bear false witness against thy neighbour." Accord- 
ing to the ordinary (though by no means univer- 
sally accepted) division of the tables, the first con- 
tains four commandments, the latter six. Thus, if 
this code of moral precepts be as we believe, a per- 
fect and exact one, one-fourth part of our duty to 
God, and one-sixth part of our duty to man, have 
to do with the words which we speak of them re- 
spectively. 

In the present chapter we shall deal exclusively 
with the Ninth Commandment, reserving the Third 
for subsequent consideration. 

The extreme case to which the Ninth Com- 
mandment applies is that of bearing false testi- 
mony to the detriment of another in a court of 



T8 An Mis Word 

justice, a sin so universally abhorred that it is 
superfluous to point out or dwell upon the bei- 
nousness of it. But let us attempt to extract the 
principle of this Commandment ; for the court of 
judicature, and the solemn oath, and the other 
formalities of the law, are only the husk in which 
the principle is wrapped up. The principle, then, 
is this: that we shall in no resjpect injure our 
neighbour's reputation. It will not be denied that 
reputation is a very precious treasure. Life would 
not be w T orth having, if a man had no sort of credit 
from the society in which he moved, if he stood 
low in the esteem of every soul which formed his 
little circle. To be respected by others who know 
us, to have some influence with them, to carry some 
weight, this is in itself a form of life. Says St. Fran- 
cis of Sales, "We live three lives, a corporal life 
which stands in the union of soul and body ; a spirit- 
ual life which stands in the grace of God ; and a 
civil life which stands in our reputation. The cor- 
poral life is stifled by murder ; the spiritual life is 
stifled by sin ; and the civil life is stifled by slander, 
which is a species of murder, inasmuch as it destroys 
a species of life." It is most true. A blow aimed 
at a man's reputation injures him quite as effectu- 
ally, though in another form, as a blow aimed at 
his body ; and most men are far more sensitive to 
the first of these injuries than to the second ; they 



defined from the Decalogue. 79 

dread the tongue of the calumniator much more 
than the weapon of the highwayman. The name 
of " accuser of the brethren " is given in Scripture 
to the author of evil ; and the title is illustrated in 
the»holy volume by the narrative of his attempt 
to ruin the fair reputation which Job enjoyed in 
the Court of Heaven. The slanderer then acts in 
imitation of the devil ; and, as children act in im- 
itation of their parents, he may be truly called the 
devil's child. 

But the ninth precept of the law reaches to 
sins which fall far short of slander. Slander is a 
false assertion to the detriment of our neighbour's 
character. But in fact any assertion to the detri- 
ment of his character is forbidden, whether it be 
true or false. Some one perhaps will say : " I do 
not see this in the Commandment : it is false wit- 
ness against our neighbour, not any witness against 
him which is forbidden." But consider what a 
hazard even a substantially true assertion runs of 
being false in the general impression created by 
it. The bare fact alleged may be true enough, but 
if none of the evidence in favour of the accused, 
and none of the extenuating circumstances be 
alleged side by side with the fact, we violate truth 
in the general effect of our words upon the hearer, 
though the particular details of them may be cor- 
rect. If we exhibit a man's vices only, and con- 



80 An Idle Word 

ceal the proportion which those vices bear to his 
virtues, we calumniate him quite as effectually, as 
if we ascribe to him a vice which he does not 
possess. A man may have a defective feature or 
features, and yet the general proportion of .his 
person may be so good, and the general cast of his 
countenance so pleasing, that the ill effect of the 
features which are awry is either modified, or 
entirely carried off. It is an untrue representation 
of that man to say merely that he has too promi- 
nent an eye, or too thick and coarse a lip ; that may 
be the case, but it is not a fair, because it is not a 
complete, description of his personal appearance. 
And, similarly, if my neighbour has been overtaken 
(perhaps by surprise) in a grievous fault, and if I, 
for want of better matter to entertain my company 
withal, blaze abroad this fault of his, but am 
wholly silent as to his good character up to that 
time, and as to the prayers and struggles against 
that particular sin which he may have made, my 
witness against him becomes as certainly false in 
the general impression created by it, and therefore 
as mischievously injurious, as if I stated of him 
what was not matter of fact. In a word, if a fair 
account of a man's faults and sins is to be given in 
conversation, the common rule of justice must be 
attended to, that evidence shall be heard for the 
defendant ; which if it were done, a true verdict 



defined from the Decalogue. 81 

might be arrived at by the company. But such 
evidence never is alleged, nor does any party ap- 
pear in the interests of the defendant, so that the 
verdict never can escape being false, and the 
evidence by which it is arrived at is to all intents 
and purposes/bfe witness. 

This consideration evidently makes it exceed- 
ingly difficult for us, and practically all but im- 
possible to say any thing to our neighbour's disad- 
vantage in common conversation, which shall not 
be more or less false in its general effect on the 
minds of the hearers. If they gathered no other 
conclusion from our words, than that the allega- 
tion were true as an isolated fact, it might be all 
well and good. But this we know from our own 
experience they never do. "With the speed of 
lightning we all of us proceed from adverse facts 
to a general unfavourable judgment on a man's 
character, and the devil being in the ear of the 
company as well as in the tongue of the accuser, 
the thought rises up instantaneously in their minds, 
"Has such a man indeed done this or that? 
Then what a villain he must be? how must all 
confidence in him be at an end ! " 

One element of mischief in the habits of the 
talebearer has been thus exhibited. The tale- 
bearer can hardly escape the charge of being a 

detractor. But even without positive detraction 
4* 



82 An Idle Word 

he may do great mischief by disclosing private 
confidences, or things which had better be con- 
sidered as such. The confidences which* are so 
disclosed are generally of a petty and insignificant 
kind ; idle gossip is usually the sphere in which 
such communications live and moye and have 
their being, according to that word of the Apos- 
tle, which attributes this particular form of sin to 
women without families, who have nothing to do : 
" Withal they learn to be idle, wandering about 
from house to house " (how clear an echo have we 
here of the Mosaic precept, " Thou shalt not go top 
and down as a talebearer among thy people ") ; 
and not only -'idle, but tattlers also, and busy- 
bodies, speaking things which they ought not." 
And because- of the usually contemptible charac- 
ter of such gossip, it is not sufficiently considered 
how real an enemy to society the man or woman 
who indulges in it is. One great difference be- 
tween God's estimate of sin and ours is, that God 
considers a sin in its tendency and natural opera- 
tion, apart from all the checks and hindrances 
which impede its full development. Man, on the 
other hand, judges of it, not by the mischief which 
it has a tendency to do, but by that which it act- 
ually does. To see the full evil of revealing con- 
fidences, we must consider what the result to So- 
ciety would be, if every one revealed them. Sup- 






defined from the Decalogue. 83 

pose that the sins of the early life of every man, 
kndVn at present only to his family and friends, 
were blazed abroad when he has attained to emi- 
nence and is in a position of usefulness ; suppose 
that every minister of Religion thought himself at 
liberty to divulge the secrets entrusted to him by 
burdened consciences in confession ; suppose that 
the secret history of many a family which stands 
well before the world and possibly is at the head 
of affairs, were divulged by one of its members ; 
unquestionably many facts would thus be brought 
to light which are now little dreamt of; but what 
would become of that confidence between man 
and man, on which the whole social fabric is 
built ? Trust in our fellow-men, which is the 
foundation of all social virtues, and which is so 
essential to the love of them, would be at an end 
for ever. And I believe it would not be long be- 
fore trust in God, which is the foundation of all 
religious virtues, would take its flight also. 

The safe rule to be deduced from the foregoing 
observations as to the government of the tongue in 
Society, is to stand at a very respectful distance 
from all such topics as our neighbour's conduct 
and character. We shall escape all risk of doing 
him injury, if we never repeat any thing we may 
have heard to his disadvantage ; and if to this we 
add the practice of stating simply (and without 



84 An Idle Word 

exaggeration) what we know in his favour, when 
we hear him attacked, we shall not only be free 
from the charge of wronging, but also do some- 
thing to right him in the estimate of others. 

Of course this rule, like all other rules, must 
be understood with those qualifications which com- 
mon sense, other precepts of Scripture, and the 
very principle of the rule itself imply. Circum- 
stances may and do arise, in which it is right and 
necessary to take away a man's natural life. Kot 
that even in this case our duty to our neighbour 
is for an instant suspended ; but our duty to a 
single neighbour is overruled by our duty to Soci- 
ety. The murderer is rightly executed, the care 
which the Law has for the lives of innocent sub- 
jects overruling the care which it has for the life 
of a single guilty one. And, similarly, circum- 
stances may arise (and do arise) in which it is not 
necessary only, but right, to say things adverse to 
our neighbour's fair fame, and thus to take away 
his civil life. It is a positive charity to expose 
impostors who deceive mankind; of a wolf in 
sheep's clothing we shall do well to point out the 
claws, and to show the id consistency of his life 
with his professions, lest he should devour other 
sheep; and this holds good, whether the person 
against whom Society is to be put on its guard be 
vicious in practice or erroneous in principle. Er- 



defined from the Decalogue. 85 

ror in fundamental points of Religion is exceed- 
ingly perilous to young and simple souls ; and it 
is a maudlin, spurious charity, too popular at the 
present day, — nay, if we are in a position to teach 
and influence others, it may be the ruin of some 
tender soul, — to salve over such errors with unc- 
tuous flattery of the life of their professors. Not 
so did the Apostle, who is the great example of 
the grace of Love in a sinful man. St. John did 
not think that pretty philosophical sentiments and 
a blameless life were to compound for vital error 
in doctrine. "Whosoever transgresseth," cried 
he, "and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, 
hath not God : he that abideth in the doctrine of 
Christ, hath both the Father and the Son. If 
there come any unto you, and bring not this doc- 
trine, receive him not into your house, neither bid 
him God speed." 

But these and similar qualifications having 
been made, it remains for us seriously to put it to 
our own consciences, — " How often, when I have 
spread abroad something to another's disadvan- 
tage, or even attacked another's character, have I 
been justified in so doing by considerations of the 
interests of Society, or the interests of truth ? " 
And remember, in self-examination on this point, 
that our unfavourable testimony may have really 
more or less answered one of these ends, and yet 



86 An Idle Word 

may not have been intended by ourselves to do 
so. There may possibly have been good grounds 
for bearing witness against our neighbour ; but 
we did not proceed to it upon these grounds, but 
merely from want of something better to say, 
mixed up perhaps with a grain or two of personal 
dislike. 

I must just glance, before concluding, at the 
word " false," in the Mnth Commandment, and 
give it a prominence which it has cot received 
hitherto. Insincerity is falsehood ; and all insin- 
cere apologies for our neighbour, or commenda- 
tions of him (an extreme into which some well- 
meaning persons are apt to run from a dread of 
calumny), are to be avoided. Though we should 
endeavour, if possible, to defend him when at- 
tacked, it must always be by honest arguments, 
such as we ourselves think to be valid evidence in 
his favour. Above all, we,, must beware of salv- 
ing over a personal aversion by hollow and false 
compliments, a hateful hypocrisy which transpires 
very quickly, and which never fails to inspire the 
listener with a just disgust. Let us remember 
that " he that hideth hatred with lying lips (as 
well as he that uttereth a slander), is a fool." 
Let us take heed of coming under that animad- 
version of the wise man : " He that hateth dissem- 
bleth with his lips " (maketh his voice gracious), 



defined from the Decalogue. 87 

" and layeth up deceit within Mm. When he 
speaketh fair, believe him not : for there are seven 
abominations in his heart." "Whose hatred is 
covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed 
before the whole congregation." 

The subject of this Chapter has been a moral 
duty, which, insignificant as it seems at first, we 
have shown to have an important bearing on the 
welfare of Society. Let none imagine that snch a 
topic is unspiritual or unevangelical. We have, 
it is true, nothing to preach but the unsearchable 
riches of Christ ; but then there are unsearchable 
riches in His Example as well as in His Atone- 
ment, in His precepts as well as in His promises, 
which equally require to be unfolded in the view 
of His Church. And in order to connect with 
His pure and spotless life the precept which we 
have been attempting to illustrate, we need only 
adduce the words of Psalm xv., which is a de- 
scription, by anticipation, of that perfectly right- 
eous Man, whom God would accept in virtue of 
His own meritorious obedience, who should abide 
for ever in the true tabernacle which the Lord 
pitched, and not man ; who should rest for ever 
upon that heavenly Hill, whereof Mount Zion was 
but a type: — "Lord, who shall abide in Thy 
tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill? 



88 An Idle Word defined from the Decalogue. 

. . . He that hacJcbiteth not with his tongue, 
nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor tdketh up a 

reproach against his neighbour He that 

doeth these things shall never be moved." 



CHAPTER Y. 

AN IDLE WORD DEFINED FROM THE DECALOGUE. 

" 2T|)ou sjjalt not tafce t£e Kante of tf)e 3Lor& % CKotr fn bain : 
for t£e 3Lovli toill not Joltr Jjim fluiltes tijat taftetf) sa^tsf Kamc 
(n bain." — Exodus xx. 7. 

This precept, like the rest of God's command- 
ments, is exceedingly broad. For by " the Name 
of God " is not to be understood mere]y the desig- 
nation in speech of the Divine Being. Names in 
old times being significant of the characteristics 
of the persons bearing them, the Name of God in 
Holy Scripture is often put for the character and 
attributes of the Divine Being ; the most remarka- 
ble example of which mode of speaking is to be 
found in the proclamation of God's Name to 
Moses, that proclamation being nothing else than 
an enumeration of God's attributes in Moses' hear- 
ing : " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in good- 
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for- 



90 An Idle Word 

giving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that 
will by no means clear the guilty." If in the 
Third Commandment the Name of God be under- 
stood in this broad sense, every sort of profane- 
ness, all desecration of things connected with God 
will be forbidden by it. It is, however, our pres- 
ent purpose to deal with it only so far as it for- 
bids wrong words, against which in the first in- 
stance it is directed. 

There is a great resemblance between the Deca- 
logue andthe Lord's Prayer, indicatingto a thought- 
ful mind that both proceeded from one and the 
same Author. The Decalogue falls into two tables, 
the Lord's Prayer no less obviously into two dis- 
tinct classes of petitions. The first table of the 
Decalogue prescribes our duty to God ; the sec- 
ond our duty to our fellow-men. And similarly 
the first section of the Lord's Prayer contains 
petitions for God's honour, kingdom, and service ; 
the second section petitions for the supply of 
man's wants. 

"We are apt to think our whole duty discharged, 
if we have been blameless in our conduct towards 
our fellow-men. But the Law of God corrects 
that error with a high hand, teaching us that the 
most fundamental duty of man, that which has 
the earliest claim upon him, is " to love the Lord 
his God with all his heart, and with all Ins mind, 



defined from the Decalogue. 91 

and with all his soul, and with all his strength." 
And, similarly, we are apt to think that in prayer 
we need sue for nothing more than the supply 
of our own needs, bread, mercy, grace, and so 
forth. But the Lord's Prayer corrects this error 
with a high hand, teaching us that God's honour, 
His cause and service, lies nearer to the heart of a 
true disciple than even his own needs. 

And to come to particulars, there is no one 
who does not see the marked resemblance be- 
tween the Third Commandment (" Thou shalt 
not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain ") 
and the first petition of the Lord's Prayer (" Hal- 
lowed be Thy Name "). The Commandment pro- 
hibits that, the opposite of which the Prayer 
solicits. We are forbidden not to desecrate God's 
Name ; and we pray that we may consecrate or 
hallow it. "When we sincerely, in a spirit of love 
and reverence, call God " our Father," we fulfil 
the First Commandment, professing Him to be 
our God, and repudiating all other. When we 
say, with the spirit and with the understanding 
also, "which art in Heaven," we fulfil the second 
Commandment ; for hereby we indicate that the 
God we worship is in Heaven, beyond the barriers 
of gross matter, and that therefore we must not 
harbour any sensuous conception of Him, or make 
any material representation. Thus the invocation 



92 Anldls Word 

of the Lord's Prayer embodies the two first Com- 
mandments. And the first petition which follows 
the invocation is an echo of the third. 

The extreme form of sin forbidden by this 
Commandment is perjury ; a solemn calling upon 
God to attest that which we well know to be false. 
But the spirit and principle of the precept forbids 
also all profaneness of expression ; and I cannot 
help pointing to the ground assigned for the pro- 
hibition, as remarkably illustrating the fact ad- 
verted to in our last Chapter, namely, the serious 
estimate of words which Almighty God, and those 
who are the exponents of His mind and will, seem 
to form. " For the Lord will not hold him guilt- 
less that taketh His Name in vain." The Law- 
giver seems to glance at a different estimate of 
this subject, popular and current among those on 
whom the restriction is laid. It is as if He had 
said, " Man may hold words in no account — may 
deem them a wind that passeth away, and cometh 
not again. "What can be the harm, he may ask, 
of a word spoken against conviction, and with a 
mental reservation, if the sentiments of the heart 
be right ? We cannot suppose that for so slight 
a thing as a word God will judge us, though we 
could easily conceive that He might do so for neg- 
lect of His Worship, or any practical disrespect 
shown to His Ordinances." In answer to these 



defined from the Decalogue. 93 

reasonings of the natural heart, God assures us 
that He will by no means hold him guiltless that 
taketh His Name in vain. He will by no means 
do so, however man might act ; and He will 
not count the profane word guiltless, that is, He 
will account profaneness of language to be a se- 
rious offence. 

The current profanenesses of expression, into 
which Christians, good and serious in the main, 
might be entrapped from want of reflection, or in 
a moment of excitement, are as follows : 

1. All asseverations which take the form of an 
oath, whether the name'of the true God be intro- 
duced in them or not ; all ejaculations in surprise 
or excitement, which imply an invocation of God. 
The original design of the Commandment was 
probably to draw a broad line of demarcation be- 
tween the peculiar people of God, and those con- 
tiguous heathen nations (the Egyptians specially) 
who freely interlarded their discourse with the 
names of their deities, Isis, Apis, Jupiter, Her- 
cules, and the rest. To a certain extent the pre- 
cept took effect ; for the Jews never allowed the 
name Jehovah (meaning the Self-existent One, or 
He that was, and that is, and that is to come) to 
pass their lips. When they came across it in the 
Old Testament, as they did in every page, they 
substituted another word of lower import, not ex- 



94 An Idle Word 

clusively appropriated to God; nor was it ever 
lawful to pronounce this sacred Name except for 
the High Priest ouce a year on the great day of 
Atonement, when he announced forgiveness to 
the people in the name of Jehovah. But while in 
this formal superstitious manner they observed 
the letter of the Commandment, they — at least in 
the later period of their history — evaded its spirit, 
and when God Incarnate came among them, He 
found them using .all manner of conversational 
oaths, swearing by heaven, by the earth, by the 
Temple, by Jerusalem, and so forth, in all which 
forms of speech they recognized no guilt. It is 
against this practice that our Lord directs His 
precept in the Sermon on the Mount : " But I say 
unto you, Swear not at all ; neither by heaven ; 
for it is God's throne : nor by the earth ; for it is 
His footstool : neither by Jerusalem ; for it is the 
city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear 
by thy head, because thou canst not make one 
hair white or black ;" a precept which is echoed, 
almost in the terms in which it was issued, by the 
Apostle James : " But above all things, my breth- 
ren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the 
earth, neither by any other oath ; but let your 
yea be yea, and your nay nay, lest ye fall into 
condemnation." 

It is sino-ular what a hold conversational oaths 



defined from the Decalogue. 95 

have taken of the minds of men in all ages and 
countries alike ; what a discontent has always 
been shown with the simple affirmation and de- 
nial, as not sufficiently emphatic ; and how, when 
(uncler"the influence of Christian civilization) a 
direct appeal to the true God has been entirely 
banished from good society, foolish and frivolous 
exclamations, in which the name is disguised, or 
exchanged for that of some heathen Deity, have 
taken its place. The account of this is, that the 
mind is ruffled by some momentary excitement, 
whether of auger or surprise ; that all emotions 
naturally seek a vent; and that a momentary 
relief is found in expressions of this kind. The 
practice, like most other practices, with great 
facility grows into a trick ; and then is indulged 
in as a mere flourish, even when the mind is per- 
fectly calm. It may be thought, perhaps, that it 
is not easy to see the guilt of such a habit ; and 
that when once formed, it is so instinctive as to 
become involuntary. But let it be considered 
that in the presence of .an earthly sovereign such 
expressions would be accounted most indecorous, 
and universally refrained from without an effort ; 
— the history of which propriety of demeanour 
would be, that men naturally lay a restraint upon 
themselves, when they are under the eye of one 
whom they venerate, and instinctively take care 



96 An Idle Word 

that nothing shall escape them, which can be con- 
strued into disrespect of a great presence. This 
remark opens a glimpse into the true spiritual 
significance of the precept before us ; for a con- 
sciousness of God's Presence steadily maintained 
would impose a similar restraint, as we shall have 
occasion presently to notice more at large. 

2. I pass from the unduly emphasized assever- 
ation or denial to other profanenesses of ex- 
pression, into which Christians might be liable to 
fall. 

It is a bad habit, and one which we should seek 
as much as possible to banish from our discourse, 
to quote texts of the Holy Scriptures by way of 
pointiug a jest. The effect of this practice is, that 
when we next come across the text in Private De- 
votion, or it may be in the Public Service of the 
Church, the ludicrous association clings to it : we 
seek to brush it off, as a person walking through a 
corn-field seeks to brush off a burr which clings to 
his dress, but we fail; and find it perhaps impos- 
sible to re-invest that passage with the sanctity 
which once it had for us. In the Psalms we find 
it written, " Thou hast magnfied Thy Word above 
all Thy Name ;" as if out of the whole circle of 
His attributes and properties there was none which 
God so especially delights to honour as His Word. 
And certainly, if there be any truth in the repre- 



defined from the Decalogue. 97 

sentation of Our Lord's life as given by His biog- 
raphers the Evangelists, there is no one thing 
which He so continually honoured in His practice 
as the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The pro-, 
phetical outline which those Scriptures had traced 
out for Him as Messiah seems to have been one of 
the uppermost thoughts in His mind ; and as He 
was fulfilling His great destiny, He was continu- 
ally reverting to this outline with such expressions 
as, " The Scriptures must be fulfilled." Now if 
God holds His Word in such especial honour, and 
if the Incarnate Son, the Image in human flesh of 
the Invisible God, and our perfect Example, shows 
such a deference to Scripture's slightest intima- 
tions, it surely cannot be in conformity with the 
mind of God and Christ that we should desecrate 
what is especially venerable by light and jocular 
applications of it. And possibly this practice of 
quoting Scripture in a connexion which desecrates 
it may have gradually wrought more evil upon our 
own minds than we are fully aware. One patent 
error of the day is a light esteem of Holy Scrip- 
ture ; a contemptuous repudiation of certain parts 
of it, as altogether unworthy of credit from their 
appearing to conflict with scientific discoveries and 
the moral sense of man ; and generally a bringing 
down of the Sacred Books to the level of common 
writings, upon which Criticism is to sit in judg- 
5 



98 An Idle Word 

ment, eliminating whatever does not satisfy her, 
and reconstructing the lively Oracle in a manner 
suitable to the progress and enlightenment of the 
age ! How mnch of this awful presumption, which 
is now making such encroachments upon Sacred 
Literature, may be due to small habits of irrever- 
ence, gaining ground stealthily and insidiously on 
the mind, it is impossible to say. But this we may 
confidently assert, that for all light esteem of 
Holy Scripture, as of every thing else connected 
with the Name of God, a judgment will in due time 
overtake us ; and therefore we cannot be too cau- 
tious or scrupulous as to our own practice in this 
particular. No doubt the gaiety and mirthfulness 
of discourse is in itself a good thing, because in this 
way it is that Conversation is made to fulfil one of 
its ends, which is the relief of the mind under the 
many burdens of life ; but too dear a price is paid 
for this gaiety, if it is produced by any saying, how- 
ever sparkling, which compromises or lowers our 
reverence for God's Word. To refrain from such 
a saying will no doubt often be a trial to those in 
whose characters there is a humorous and imagina- 
tive element ; but let them say, after honestly try- 
ing it, whether such self-restraint, out of reverence 
to the Awful Name of God, does not bring with it 
its own reward, — whether it is not at all events 
compensated by the great facility and readiness 



defined from the Decalogue. 99 

with which the mind is brought into a devotional 
frame, and fenced from distractions in prayer. 

3. But perhaps there are profan en esses of expres- 
sion current among us, when and where such things 
are least looked for, — when and where in a rapid 
survey they would be overlooked. Our times are 
controversial times, when a great public interest 
is felt in subjects of religiou. We do not believe 
that the depth of this interest is at all proportion- 
ate to its universality. What men have much 
on their tongues has seldom a very firm root in 
their minds : — and it is just this combination of 
fluency of talk with shallowness of feeling (so char- 
acteristic of our day) which constitutes our danger. 
Theological discussions are so common now-a-days, 
that the words which denote the highest verities 
of Religion have become mere counters, passed 
about from hand to hand with a fatal facility. As 
coins which are in continual currency lose the Sov- 
ereign's image originally impressed upon them, so 
that we can no longer tell to what reign they be- 
long ; so these religious words, being bandied about 
continually, lose all the freshness of their original 
signification, and convey hardly more of idea to 
the minds of the persons using them than an alge- 
braical formula. Men will talk about the Inspi- 
ration of Scripture, Baptismal Regeneration, the 
Sacrament of the Altar, the Powers of the Chris^ 



100 An Idle Wwrt 

tian Ministry, the Miracles of Our Lord, His Divine 
Sonship, the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, with- 
out ever pausing for a moment to consider the 
deep reality of the things on which their conversa- 
tion is turning, — without the thought crossing them 
that their tongue is making its sallies in the region 
of the supernatural. Who ever came away from 
an ordinary controversial discussion, feeling that 
he was the better for it, or with an impression of 
the solemnity of Divine things abiding on his 
spirit ? Who ever came away without feeling that 
the dignity of the subject had been somewhat im- 
paired by the rude friction against his neigh- 
bour's views which his own views had sustained ? 
And what is the reason of this result % The reason 
is that, in the warmth of the discussion, both parties 
have forgotten the reality bf the things which were 
upon their lips ; both have in a measure (though 
quite unconsciously, and probably with no worse 
motive than that of mutual improvement) " taken 
the Name of the Lord their God in vain." To 
talk suitably and profitably about Divine things is 
no such' easy matter as might be supposed. It de- 
mands a certain state of heart which is not by 
ordinary Christians realized, except in happy mo- 
ments. It demands recognition of God's Presence, 
of the mysteriousness of His Nature, and of all 
truths concerning *Him, and of the limitations 



defined from the Decalogue. 101 

imposed upon the human understanding. The 
mind must be in a worshipping rather than a spec- 
ulative frame. For Divine Truth is most cer- 
tainly received, not with the understanding, but 
with the heart ; and therefore he who allows him- 
self to make an intellectual game of the pursuit of 
it, as if it could be won by mere dialectical fencing, 
approaches it at the wrong end, and misses alto- 
gether of its moral effect. 

It is recorded of Sir Isaac Newton, and a 
similar anecdote is told of Boyle, that he never 
named God in conversation without a visible pause 
or stop, and that, if he were covered at the time, 
'he commonly also raised his hat from his head. 
Oh ! how much it is to be desired in these days 
of Religious Conferences and Church Congresses, 
when fluent mention of God and Divine things in 
certain circles is so much in vogue, that men would 
cultivate the same spirit which expressed itself by 
these outward visible signs ? How much it is to 
be desired, even if the only point to be secured were 
the edification of man ! For a controversial dis- 
cussion, conducted with a seriousness suitable to 
the subjects on which it turns, could not be an ac- 
rimonious discussion. A heart solemnized by the 
thought of God's Presence is in a calm state, — is in 
communion with the Fountain of Truth and Love, 
and cannot easily fulminate an anathema, or even 



102 An Idle Ward 

provoke a difference of opinion. But how much 
more desirable does such a state of mind appear, 
when we remember that not only the danger of 
dissension with man has to be guarded against, but 
that also of offence to the Majesty of Heaven ! Sins 
against Society are light as compared with those 
against God, and are to a certain extent remedia- 
ble by Society itself, according to that profound 
word of the old priest: "If one man sin against 
another, the judge shall judge him : but if a man 
sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him ? " 
4. We have spoken of Reverence in handling 
Divine Truth; but there is another sentiment, 
distinct from, and yet intimately blended with 
Reverence, with which it should be handled, — I 
mean that sentiment of fervour, of love, and de- 
light, to which the name of unction is usually 
given. Surely it is doing a great wrong to the 
greatest of all themes, if we speak of God in a 
dry, cold, hard manner, without any feeling of the 
surpassing beauty, amiability, and attractiveness 
of His Character. A Being whose heart is a 
Fountain of pity and of sympathy with His 
meanest creatures, and whose tenderness for His 
rational creatures is so unspeakably great, that, 
sooner than they should perish, He consented to 
the Sacrifice of His Son ; a Being who, in His in- 
exhaustible bounty, yearns and longs to communi- 



defined from the Decalogue. 103 

cate His favours far and wide, — who so yearns 
after union, with man in particular, that to effect 
this union, He sent His Son to take our Nature 
upon Hiin, and His Spirit to make us partakers 
of His Divine Nature, — a Father of lights, from 
whom proceeds every scintillation of wisdom and 
truth which has ever been struck out, and a God 
of Love in whom every pure and benevolent 
affection centres, — such a One should not be 
named except in a loving and fervent spirit, 
with the feeling that, if we had the tongues 
of angels to exalt Him with, we could never 
adequately tell forth His praise. Such an in- 
finitely good, wise, and tender Father one would 
wish never to think of without a drawing of 
the heart towards Him, and therefore never 
to speak of except in terms which might commend 
Him to the listeners. It is a high attainment to 
speak of God thus in familiar discourse, but not 
beyond the reach of any man who will set about 
it in the right way. It is not to be done by un- 
natural straining after a pious sentiment, and in- 
jecting it into the ear of a casual listener. The 
speech which ministers grace to the hearers is never 
forced, but flows naturally from the exuberance 
of a heart full charged with its subject ; it is water 
from a fountain, not water forced up by machinery. 
Hold much and fervent communion with God; 



104: An Idle Wo?*d 

and let this communion consist not so much in 
direct prayer, as in meditation on His glorious and 
lovely attributes, as they are fully revealed to us 
in the Gospel. This meditation, if persisted in, 
will gradually beget what I shall call a gravitation 
of the mind towards God, a thrill of joy when any 
new wonder in His works or His Word is revealed 
to us, and of delight when He is honoured and 
glorified. And this state of mind will transpire 
occasionally — with some oftener, with others more 
rarely, according to the greater or less unreserve 
of the character,— in simple but fervent words 
spoken to those around us, which, coming from the 
heart of the speaker, and having a savour of 
heavenly affections, which commends them, are 
very likely to go to the heart of the listener. 
Thus shall we not only refrain from taking the 
Name of the Lord our God in vain, but shall do 
something towards the fulfilment of the precept 
on its positive side, by " hallowing the isame " of 
our Father which is in Heaven. 

5. And now, in conclusion, we must exhibit 
this positive side of the precept a little more fully. 
In order to which it will be necessary to observe 
the connexion which subsists between the com- 
mandments of the first Table. TVe know that 
they are all summed up in the one precept of 
" loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and 



defined from the Decalogue. 105 

with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with 
all our strength*." Now this devoted love of God 
must necessarily involve the following obliga- 
tions : — 

Firstly. An obligation to worship Him only, 
to the exclusion of pleasure, money, distinction, 
or any other object to which men give their hearts. 
This is the obligation prescribed by the First 
Commandment. 

Secondly. An obligation to worship Him in 
spirit and in truth, not leaning upon material 
representations, or impressions derived from the 
senses. This is the obligation prescribed by the 
Second Commandment. 

Thirdly. An obligation to worship Him, in a 
certain sense, unceasingly, by continually realiz- 
ing His Presence, and gravitating towards Him in 
our inmost souls. This is the obligation pre- 
scribed by the Third Commandment. 

And fourthly. An obligation to devote a cer- 
tain portion of our time to direct acts of worship. 
This last precept is the antidote and corrective of 
an error, which possibly might be insinuated by 
the Third. For it might be asked: "If the 
mind is never allowed to lose the consciousness of 
God's Presence, is not this sufficient homage, 
without any distinct acts of worship?" The 
Fourth Commandment answers this question in 



106 An Idle Word 

the negative, affirming the principle that God has 
a claim upon our time, and that this claim must 
be acknowledged by surrendering a certain por- 
tion of it to Worship, Public and Private. — But 
to return to the Third Commandment. 

I am not denying that forcible restraints upon 
the tongue are good, or that they are necessary as 
steps by which we may mount up to the spiritual 
fulfilment of this precept. But I do say that the 
precept, understood in its length and breadth, in- 
volves something far beyond these restraints. It 
cannot be thoroughly fulfilled without an habitual 
consciousness of God's Presence, and intimate 
nearness to each one of us. " Thy Name also is 
so nigh." " I am always by Thee." Let this 
consciousness preside in the soul ; and an irrever- 
ent word becomes at once an impossibility. We 
have already seen that it is only when a man is 
off his guard, and does not care for his company, 
that such words escape him. If he were in a royal 
presence, nay, even if he were in the presence of 
a child or a woman, or, in short, of any one to 
whom respect is felt to be due, he would, almost 
without an effort, refrain from profane language. 
Then if he can bring himself to the remembrance 
that God's Eye is always upon him, that this Su- 
preme Object of reverence and love hears every 
word he says, and registers every idle word, this 



defined from the Decalogue. 107" 

thought will operate as no mere rule could do, to 
secure the fulfilment of the precept. Seek, then, 
this consciousness of God's Presence. Say often 
in thine heart, " Thou God seest me ; " " Have I 
also here looked after Him that seeth me ? " The 
practice of pausing momentarily in business or 
recreation, to realize God's Presence, i^ one of the 
rudimentary lessons in the Primer of Eeligion, 
which teaches us to walk by faith and not by 
sight. Be thoroughly rooted and grounded in this 
lesson. Make it the maxim of your spiritual life. 
And you shall soon learn to live more nearly as 
you pray, when you pray, as you do daily, that 
the " Name of our Father who is in Heaven may 
be hallowed." 



CHAPTEK VL 

WHAT IS AN IDLE WOED ? 

u SSb^rg tele toorii tljat men sf)all sjjeafc, tfjeg sjall flibe account 
fymoi in t|je Haw af Judgment"— Matt. xii. 36. 

The sin of idle words is censured by Our Lord 
in the most awful terms. It behoves us, there- 
fore, to ascertain exactly what is meant by idle 
words, — lest we should add any thing to, or di- 
minish any thing from, His holy commandment. 

Nor let any one imagine that such minute in- 
vestigations of the language of Holy Scripture as 
we now propose, are wanting in interest. Holy 
Scripture is the expression of the mind of the 
Spirit. He, therefore, who sifts a Greek or He- 
brew phrase occurring in the Old or E"ew Testa- 
ment, with the view of ascertaining its fine shades 
of significance, is investigating the sublimest of all 
subjects — he is exploring, as far as man may ex- 
plore, the thoughts of Almighty God. 



What is cm Idle Word? 109 

" Every idle word." 

Our first rule, in seeking to understand a pas- 
sage of Scripture, must always be to review it in 
connexion with its context. What then is the 
context of these words of our Lord ? 

The discourse, of which the words in question 
form a part, had its rise in the circumstance of the 
Pharisees attributing Our Lord's miracles (even 
those of them whose character presented most 
difficulty to such an explanation) to Satanic agen- 
cy. He had cast out of a man a blind and dumb 
devil, so that the blind and dumb both spake and 
saw. The people were struck with amazement 
and conviction. They said, " Is not this the son 
of David?" 

But the Pharisees resisted this natural and 
obvious conclusion, hj suggesting another account 
of the phenomenon. They said, "This fellow 
doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the 
prince of the devils." 

Thereupon follows the discourse, which makes 
mention of a certain unpardonable sin, called 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (fj rod Jlvev- 
fiarog (3Xaa(f>rjfiia), and embraces also the warn- 
ing against idle words that is contained in our 
text. 

Now at first sights it is natural to suppose that 
by idle words are meant such as the Pharisees 



110 What is an Idle Word f 

had just vented — words of blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost. And it is not difficult to perceive 
what kind of words those were. The Pharisees, 
like the multitude, were internally convinced of 
the Messiahship of Jesus by the miracle which 
they had witnessed. But it would have been in- 
convenient to them to have acknowledged His 
claims. By doing so, they would have to retract 
their whole previous career — to place themselves 
(after the fashion of Mary) at His feet, as His dis- 
ciples. This would have humbled the pride of 
those ecclesiastical rulers, and such an humiliation 
they could not brook. So, without honestly be- 
lieving their own explanation, they attributed the 
cure of the blind and dumb man to the agency 
of Satan. It was a supernatural cure — that they 
admitted — but there are, said they, supernatural 
evil agencies as well as supernatural good ones, — 
and this particular miracle is due to the first of 
these causes. It might have occurred to them 
(probably it did occur to them in the deep of 
their hearts), that this was a flimsy and trans- 
parently false explanation — that, on no recognized 
principle of craft or policy, could the Devil cast 
out his own agents. 

Yes, such an account would not serve the turn ; 
— it was a dishonest shuffle, and they knew it to 
be so, to avoid making a confession which was irre- 



What is a7i Idle Word? Ill 

sistibly forced upon their minds, but which would 
have involved them in consequences from which 
their pride and jealousy shrunk. 

And then came in the corrupt special pleading, 
so natural to the human mind under such circum- 
stances, — e H yXS>G& dfiufiotf, 7] 6s <ppr\v dvcj^orog. 
"After, all, though I am giving an explanation 
which I do not believe — with which I am not sat- 
isfied myself — which finds no response whatever 
in my convictions, — yet these are but words, the 
breath of the lips, lightly uttered and soon forgot- 
ten — my mind recognizes the truth, though I can- 
not bring my tongue to confess it." 

The eye of Him, who knew what was in man, 
detected this reasoning at the bottom of their 
hearts : and down came the lighting of His censure 
to brush and blast a fallacy so dangerous. " Who- 
soever speaketh a word against the Son of Man" 
(without violating internal convictions, — like 
Paul before his conversion, who spake many things 
against the Son of Man, but spake them ignorant- 
ly in unbelief), "it shall be forgiven him — but 
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost" 
(violates those internal convictions of Truth, which 
are wrought in the mind by the Holy Spirit), " it 
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come." As if the Lord had 
said : " Your Language is not, as you vainly im- 



112 What is an Idle Word? 

agine, a separate and separable thing from your Rea- 
son : it has a deep and living connexion with your 
state of mind. Language and Reason have their 
fibres twined up together, — so that a corrupt Lan- 
guage argues a corrupt Reason." 

And then follows our passage, introduced by 
the formula But I say tjnto totj : — " Every idle 
word that men shall speak, they shall give ac- 
count thereof in the day of judgment." 

Now is the idle word to be explained simply 
and solely by the blasphemy preceding? If so, 
the warning, — though still an awful one, — will 
scarcely possess a general applicability; for the 
number of those is few, whose circumstances re- 
semble the circumstances of the Bharisees. The 
nearest approach to the same sin now-a-days, 
would be the case of an Indian Brahmin, men- 
tally convinced of the truth of Christianity, but 
inventing arguments to explain it away from the 
fear of losing caste. Similar cases would rare- 
ly occur in countries professing Christianity, — 
though even here men might sin, after a measure, 
on much the same principle. 

But we think there are reasons for giving to 
these solemn words a far more extended applica- 
bility. 

First, they are introduced by a formula, which 
will be found, I think, to indicate a transition 



What is an Idle Word f 113 

from a more limited to a more extended applica- 
tion, the word translated " but " having the force 
of moreover ,— furthermore. Thus in the Sermon 
on the Mount many times : 

" Ye have heard that it hath been said by 
them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, 
but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But 
I say unto you (eyw 6e Xeyu v[uv), Swear not at 
all." In other words, I make the precept of the 
Law more extensively applicable. 

Again : " Ye have heard that it has been said 
by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adul- 
tery : but I SAT UNTO YOU " (eyw 6e Xeya vfuv) — 
the Law truly interpreted imposes a far wider 
restraint than this, — " Whosoever looketh on a 
woman to lust after her hath committed adultery 
with her already in his heart." 

Again ; in commendation of the centurion of 
Capernaum, it is said : " Yerily I say unto you, I 
have not found so great faith, no not in Israel : 
and I say unto you (Aeyw 6e vfuv), that many 
shall come from the east and west, and shall sit 
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in 
the kingdom of heaven." Observe, many shall 
come — I limit not my speech to this centurion — 
I assert it as an universally applicable truth, that 
many, whom ye look down upon as dogs and 
sinners of the Gentiles, shall be admitted to a 



114 What is an Idle Word? 

glorious and intimate communion with the first 
founders of your race. 

And again : " Have ye not read in the Law, 
how that on the sabbath days the priests in the 
Temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless \ " 
(their profanation of the Sabbath is excused by 
the fact that it is committed in the course of their 
attendance on the Temple. My disciples, there- 
fore, supposing they were attending on the Tem- 
ple, might be excused for some profanations of the 
Sabbath.) "But I sat unto you" (Aeyw 6e vfuv), 
" that in this place is One greater than the Tem- 
ple." (My disciples are plucking the ears of corn, 
in course of their attendance upon me : how much 
more does that excuse the act.) 

Thus we perceive that the phrase in question 
introduces a transition to a stronger, more em- 
phatic, or more general assertion. 

But the same conclusion will follow from ex- 
amining the word rendered " idle" (dpXog). 

According to its derivation, this word means 
not working — (d-epyov). 

If we refer to other places in which it occurs, 
we shall find that it is used of the labourers, 
whom the lord of the vineyard saw standing idle 
(dpyol) in the market-place. Here it must mean 
simply unoccupied, disengaged. Again, St. Paul 
employs it to denote that hanging about upon 



What is an Idle Word f 115 

life, which is so opposed to Christian earnestness 
in work, and which goes together with gossip and 
curiosity abont other people's affairs. Advocat 
ing the second marriage of widows he says that 
if unmarried, " they learn to be idle" (apycw), 
" wandering about from house to house ; and not 
only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking 
things which they ought not." (I quote contexts, 
because I wish to arrive at a well-defined, nicely- 
chiselled apprehension of the Scriptural meaning 
of the word.) Then again a verse from Epimeni- 
des is quoted in the Epistle to Titus, in which the 
Cretans are^ said to be " slow bellies " (yaarepeg 
dgyat). The substantive would probably indicate 
their gluttony ; the adjective their want of exer- 
tion, that is, their indolence. Finally, St. Peter, 
in his second Epistle, couples the word with d/cap- 
7rog, unfruitful. Christians, who exhibit Christian 
graces in abundance, are said to be, ovk dpyol ovde 
dfcapirot, " neither barren nor unfruitful." 'Apyb^ 
then is a term which might be applied to unpro- 
ductive ground — to that soil which, though drink- 
ing " in the rain that cometh oft upon it, bringeth 
not forth herbs meet for them by whom it is 
dressed." Hence, of the barren fig-tree it is said 
— Ivarl teal ttjv yrjv Karapyel ; " Why also cumbereth 
it the ground ?" Why, besides being unfruitful 
itself, doth it drain away the fatness of the soil, 



116 What is an Idle Word f 

which might go to feed a fruit-bearing tree, and 
so render the ground inoperative, unproductive, 
unfruitful % 

Now, the words of the Pharisees were not 
simply useless, unfruitful, unprofitable words ; — 
but far worse. They were false words — they 
counteracted conviction — their fault was not that 
of omission — they were positively bad, mischiev- 
ous, and wicked words. They were a lie in the 
teeth of conviction, and they were calculated to 
do harm, to mislead the ignorant people who 
looked up to their authority. Hence we infer 
that when Our Lord condemns idle words, He is 
going a step beyond that sin of blasphemy upon 
which His censure had at the outset of the dis- 
course so heavily fallen — and that our text, ren- 
dered so as to exhibit the emphatic transition, 
would run thus — " Nay, I even say unto you, that 
every idle word " (not merely every false and 
blasphemous, but " every idle word) that men 
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the 
day of judgment." 

Nor is there any thing which need surprise us, 
in this strictness of the Christian Law on the sub- 
ject of words. It is strictly in accordance with 
the general tenour of Evangelical Precept. "We 
are often instructed that that precept cannot be 
satisfied by innocuousness — that we are required 



What is an Idle Word f 117 

riot merely to abstain from harm, but to do posi- 
tive good. Thus it is in the Parables of the Tal- 
ents and the Pounds. The servant who hid his 
talent in a napkin, who did not give it to the ex- 
changers — who did not put it out to interest — is 
called a wicked servant. But his wickedness was 
no wickedness after the world's estimate. It con- 
sisted simply in slothfulness : — had harmlessness 
been the criterion of worth, the servant being per- 
fectly harmless, would have passed without cen- 
sure. But God gives us talents for an end. 
The abilities, resources, influence, opportunities 
of improvement, which He bestows, are designed 
to further an object. And if they do not further 
that object, if they are idle, fruitless, unprofitable, 
— if they fulfil not their function, and bring no 
revenue to the good of man, and the glory of 
God, — condemnation ensues as surely and as 
sternly as if they had been misemployed. Indeed, 
not to employ a talent which was designed for em- 
ployment — this is to misemploy it. 

May God eradicate out of the hearts of all of 
us that worldly, false, and mischievous notion, — 
that we may neglect the opportunities afforded us, 
waste our time, and leave our talents uncultivated, 
and yet be accounted in the sight of God to have 
lived upon the whole a pure life. This would be 
very well, if we were to be judged at the Last 



118 What is an Idle Word f 

Day by the World, — by the society in which we 
have moved. The world does account harmless- 
ness for goodness. If a man has done no harm, 
the world is content with him, the requirements 
of society are satisfied. But we are to be judged 
by One, who has not the smallest regard to the 
verdict of society, or the estimate of man. "We 
are to stand before the tribunal of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, — and there to render to Him an account 
how we have observed His Law. The Word that 
He hath spoken, the same shall judge us in the 
last day. We have that Word in our hands — it 
is sounded in our ears continually. Does He in 
that Word ever lead us to expect — does He ever 
give us the slightest intimation — that He will be 
satisfied with an amiable harmlessness % Yerily, I 
trow not. Every thing which He says on the 
subject is in the teeth of this notion. He pro- 
claims the principle of His dealing with us to be 
this — That wherever He has bestowed a talent, 
He expects a revenue from it — He expects that we 
shall put it out to interest, and bring this interest 
into His treasury. 

Apply now this principle to words. Is not 
the gift of words a talent ? Is there any talent so 
wonderful as words, — which are the living prod- 
uce of the Reason ? And are not words a talent 
adapted to secure the highest of all ends ? May 



What is an Idle Word? 119 

we not bless God therewith % May we not preach 
the Gospel, and communicate wholesome instruc- 
tion therewith % May we not edify human souls 
therewith ? May we not carry on discourse of 
wisdom therewith % May we not therewith refresh 
and relax the mind by discourse of wit, which is 
nearly allied to wisdom ? May we not lighten 
another man's burden therewith, and lift up the 
head that droops therewith, and present to the 
mind pictures of truth and beauty therewith, and 
drop suggestions therewith, which shall be the seed 
of great thoughts and of lofty impulses? And 
if the talent of words may be made thus largely 
prolific, it was no doubt designed to minister to 
these ends. The blessing of God, the edification 
and rational amusement of man, are its final 
causes, the objects which it was designed to sub- 
serve. 

Shall I be surprised, then, if, when I stand be- 
fore the Judgment Seat, an account is required of 
me how I have used this talent — if I am asked 
whether I have blessed God, have instructed or 
entertained man, have spoken a word in due sea- 
son to the weary, have thrown out good sugges- 
tions, have advocated holy objects therewith — and 
if upon every word which has not conduced to 
any of these purposes (then brought to my mem- 
ory with an instantaneousness more than electric) 



120 What is an Idle Word? 

should be pronounced by the Son of Man the 
censure idle ? In short, is there any thing more 
than the intimation, that we are expected dili- 
gently to improve all our talents, in the solemn 
words of our passage : if Xay, I even say unto you 
that every idle word that men shall speak, they 
shall give account thereof in the day of judg- 
ment " ? 

In the next Chapters we will consider more in 
detail the final causes of the talent of words : for 
unless those final causes are well defined in our 
minds, we shall not be able to apprehend the subject 
in detail, however much possessed of a clear gene- 
ral notion of its meaning. 

But, before closing our present Chapter, let us 
reflect that we have ascertained this clear general 
notion. It is a solemn thing — this ascertaining of 
Our Lord's meaning in a matter bearing so iin-. 
mediately upon our daily practice. So long as the 
meaning is a little cloudy, and wrapped up in 
doubt and difficulty, we might think perhaps that 
if we do not fully carry out the precept, it is 
because we do not entirely understand it. But I 
am afraid that the meaning is too clear in this in- 
stance, for the precept to be thus evaded. 

TThat the passage condemns is useless words, 
words conducive neither to instruction nor to in- 
nocent entertainment — words having no salt of wit 



What is an Idle Word f 121 

or wisdom in them — flat, stale, dull, and unprofit- 
able — thrown out to while away the time, to fill 
up a spare five minutes, — words that are not con- 
secrated by any seriousness of purpose whatever. 

ISTow that we understand clearly what is forbid- 
den, we must gird ourselves earnestly to the ob- 
servance of the restriction. Remember upon Whose 
authority the restriction rests. Remem ber it is the 
Lord Jesus who speaks. This leaves no room for 
evasion. The command may be hard, may be 
difficult of execution ; but impossible it is not, or 
He would not have commanded it — and difficult 
though it be, He gives grace if we seek it, more 
than commensurate to the difficulty. 

"Well, then, I see plainly that a new duty has 
been brought home to my conscience, and that I 
must begin to-morrow clearing away out of my 
talk every weed and useless growth — every thing 
vapid, useless, aimless, idle. 

Said I every weed and useless growth ? And 
are there not in the mouths of some (despite all 
the refinement of modern society) words positively 
evil and noxious? Do not many use the tongue 
in swearing, which should be employed in blessing 
God ? Do not many employ that faculty which was 
given for the purpose of edification, in corrupting 
others by means of words, and in spreading round 
them a moral pestilence? the sentence against 
6 



122 What is cm Idle Word? 

idle words is awful enough. But for him, who 
taints the soul of another by communicating to 
him the venom of a foul imagination, for him, and 
such as him, there remains a censure, which seems 
to exhaust the righteous indignation of Him Who 
is Love: — "Woe unto that man by whom the 
offence cometh : rr weee better foe htm that a 

MILESTONE WEEE HANGED ABOET HIS NECX, AND HE 



CHAPTEE TIL 

WOEDS OF BUSINESS AND LNNOCENT EECEEATION 
NOT IDLE. 

" Sbcrg tile toortr.'* — Matt, xii. 36. 

We are at present engaged in the minute ex- 
amination of the solemn censure, passed by Our 
Lord upon idle words. 

I suppose my readers to be deeply impressed 
with the necessity of following out the Lord's 
will, when it is ascertained. I suppose them will- 
ing and desirous to observe such restraints as He 
lays upon them. I suppose the tone of their mind 
in regard to His precepts to be justly expressed 
by the words of the Blessed Yirgin to the servants 
at the marriage festival, — " Whatsoever He saith 
unto you, do it." Our question on the present 
occasion is, what He does say ? 

In prosecuting this inquiry, we have already 
seen that the word rendered " idle " is very appro- 



124 Words of Business and 

priately so rendered — that it is susceptible of ap- 
plication to any person or thing which does not 
perform its proper business, and so fulfil the prop- 
er end of its existence. 

Words then are idle, which do not fulfil the 
proper end of the existence of words. 

We may remark, in general, that what consti- 
tutes the excellence or virtue of any thing is, that 
it should fulfil its proper end. A few simple 
instances will suffice to make this clear. The end 
of an orchard — the business which we expect it to 
fulfil — is to bring forth fruit. The end of a 
flower-garden is to gratify the senses of sight and 
smell. The end of a watch is to keep the time 
truly. The end of memory is to present us with 
a faithful picture of the past. The end of an elec- 
tric telegraph is to convey news with rapidity. 
If the orchard brings forth a meagre crop, — if the 
garden presents a poor and ill-arranged assort- 
ment of colours, — if the watch is ever losing or 
gaining, — if the memory is ever letting points of 
importance drop, — if the telegraph is so ill- worked, 
or so fractured, that the instantaneous conveyance 
of intelligence is impeded, — we call it, as the case 
may be, a bad orchard, or a bad garden, or a bad 
watch, or a bad memory, or a bad telegraph, — 
implying thereby that we regard that thing as 
good, which fulfils its proper business or function. 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 125 

What then is the proper function of words, — 
the end for which they were given, — by fulfilling 
which they become good, and escape the censure 
of being idle words ? 

The first and perhaps (by comparison) the low- 
est end of words, is to carry on the business of life. 
A moment's thought will show us, that the most 
ordinary and most essential transactions cannot 
be carried on without words. Life wonld be at a 
standstill without them. Think how impossible 
it wonld be to carry out any common project or 
enterprise, if those who took it in hand were sud- 
denly struck dumb. Remember how impossible 
it proved to continue the building of the Tower 
of Babel, when by the confusion of tongues the 
builders were precluded from the use of a com- 
mon language. And without some amount of 
combination, mutual assistance, and co-operation, 
scarcely any thing could be effected. Men are so 
completely one body, that they have need of one 
another's services many times in each day. The 
service of course often consists of some common 
piece of information, which one man is master of, 
and another not. Still it is a service ; it involves 
the principle of mutual assistance, and in the ab- 
sence of words it could not be rendered. You 
walk through the fields, and a peasant, who has 
no clock but that of the heavens to govern his 



126 Words of Business and 

arrangements by, asks you the time. You walk 
through the city, and an officer of justice, in pur- 
suit of a criminal, asks you whether you have 
seen a person of such a description as you came 
along on such a road. You want a book of 
reference for immediate use ; long before you can 
procure it from a bookseller, the occasion for it 
will have passed away : but you may have it by 
speaking a few words ; for your neighbour pos- 
sesses it, and will lend it to you, if you ask him. 
]S"ow conceive in all these cases what a serious 
impediment to the business of life it would be, if 
the person in want of assistance, or the person 
questioned for information, were deprived of the 
use of Language, or were sullenly to refuse to 
speak. Carry out this hypothesis to its ultimate 
results, and you would deal a death-blow at mu- 
tual supply and demand, at commerce and ex- 
change, at all the arts of civilized life, — nay, you 
would destroy the whole system of the republic 
(by which word I now mean, not any particular 
form of government, but the system of society and 
of life in common), and would reduce man to the 
level of a solitary creature, — to the condition of 
the hermit, who plucks berries for his food, dips 
his potsherd in the stream, wattles his own hufc, 
and patches up a garment of leaves, like our first 
parents after their fall. 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 127 

The sum and substance of what has been said 
is this : Men are, by Divine appointment, a com- 
munity — " one body." The mutual dependence 
of the members of a community upon one another, 
involves some rapid means of communication be- 
tween them. The means of communication or- 
dained by God for this purpose is Language. Lan- 
guage, therefore, may be not only innocently, but 
commendably, used in carrying on the business of 
life. Assuredly it is no idle word, if, when I want 
information to guide my arrangements, I ask for 
it, or if, when I am solicited for such information, I 
give it. If such words are to the point, — I mean, 
if they are not made the excuse for indulging in 
gossip, and throwing away precious moments — I 
need not fesirJheir confronting me at the Day of 
Judgment. Probably, reader, you think that this 
is a very needless admonition. Nay, but I am 
anxious to ascertain very definitely, by way of 
guiding our consciences, what words are permitted 
to us and wmat are forbidden. How are we to ex- 
amine ourselves on the idle words we have used, 
so long as we have but a vague notion of what is 
meant by an idle word ? 

The second end which words should fulfil, and 
for which they were no doubt designed, is to re- 
fresh and entertain the mind. 

It is a trite saying, but no less true than it is 



128 Words of Business and 

trite, that the mind requires refreshment. One 
strain of serious occupation or of earnest thought, 
cannot be maintained for any length of time, and 
an attempt made to maintain it, in despite of the 
constitution of our nature, would probably, if per- 
sisted in, issue in the wreck of our mental powers. 
The mind, like the body, cannot endure a long-con- 
tinued pressure ; and man, therefore, being in need 
of recreation (and that, in virtue of his original 
constitution, without reference to the sin he has 
superinduced upon it), we should expect to find 
him furnished with some resource, — a resource, 
mark you, in himself, and not in external circum- 
stances, for mental refreshment. Most wisely, 
therefore, and most beneficently has it been or- 
dained that he shall carry about with him such a 
resource in the tongue, — the instrument of recrea- 
tion as well as of business, of refreshment as well 
as of instruction. 

Similarly, in his bodily constitution there is a 
provision for the recreation of his physical frame. 
The power of moving the limbs, — of taking exercise 
of any description, — no doubt conduces to the more 
serious ends of carrying on mutual communication, 
and so of forwarding the business of life. But this 
same exercise, taken in the open air, under fresh 
breezes and gleams of sunshine, and among the 
ever-shifting sceneries of nature, is also a physical 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 129 

recreation. Think of the operative, whose nimble 
fingers are plying all day amidst the whirr of 
machinery, and giving abundant testimony to the 
wonderful skilfulness with which the human hand 
has been constructed for the purpose of the useful 
arts : set these same limbs at work on a fine sum- 
mer's evening amid the genial sights and sounds 
of nature, — let him pluck daisies to weave a fan- 
tastic garland, or toss himself among the sweet 
hay, or simply walk through the fields of clover, 
and watch the sun descend in a blaze of gold, — 
this is the very refreshment which his frame, jaded 
by the protracted labours of the day, demands, and 
which we of the upper classes, whose luxuries are 
purchased by his toils, are bound to see that he has 
at least the opportunity of enjoying. 

ISTow analogous to exercise for recreation's sake 
in the physical frame of man, is the use of the 
tongue for the entertainment of the mind. The 
method of mental entertainment readiest to hand, 
— that which nature herself furnishes independent- 
ly of all extrinsic resources, — is by the tongue. 
" Iron sharpeneth iron : so a man sharpeneth the 
countenance of his friend," — a very expressive 
text, and one which speaks for itself. When the 
countenance is dulled and blunted by the hard and 
dry business of life, what is it which communicates 
to it the spark of animation, which makes it dawn 



130 Words of .Business and 

once again with intelligence, -winch brings out that 
characteristic gleam, which probably lies hidden 
in every countenance, which it is the artist's skill 
to catch and to perpetuate upon canvas, but which 
no solar picture (taken as such likenesses are by 
machinery, and without an operation of the artifi- 
cer's mind) ever did or ever will catch ? " A man 
sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." The 
simple collision of mind with mind, not on arduous 
subjects, or serious business, but upon ordinary 
and lighter topics, — the simple interchange of 
thoughts without reserve, and the freedom and 
gaiety of common intercourse, — acts as the greatest 
relief, to one whose attention and thoughts have 
been kept on the stretch by study or business. 
The excellence of such conversation — that which 
renders it good of its kind, and suitable to the ful- 
filment of its end — is Wit. Do not be surprised 
at hearing such a thing advocated (and I am 
prepared deliberately to advocate it), in an essay, 
whose purport is religious. If there were more 
of the salt of wit in our ordinary conversation, its 
general vapid nature would be corrected, — it 
would turn less upon the character, conduct, plans, 
and arrangements of our neighbours, — topics upon 
which perhaps it can never turn with any profit, 
and upon which it rarely turns without trenching 
hard upon sin. It is to be deplored that there is so 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 131 

little wit in the world, not that there is so much ; 
for in default of wit it is that men seek diversion 
of the mind, some by empty gossip, and some by 
foul and obscene conversation, which feeds in 
them the deadly gangrene of impure lust. It has 
been often said that Wit and Wisdom are twin 
sisters. And it is true. They are so nearly al- 
lied, that one might almost say they are the same 
faculty, operating at its different poles. " Wit," 
says Aristotle, " is the conception of incongrui- 
ties." And is not wisdom the perception of har- 
monies? What is the perception of analogies 
running through all the various departments of 
nature, — the domain of sight, the domain of sound, 
the domain of touch, 1 — but wisdom or philosophy ? 
What is a parable, but the exhibition of a har- 
mony subsisting between God's works of Grace 
on the one hand, and His works of Nature or 
Providence on the other ? Is there any wise work 
in any department of literature, art, or science, 
which is not ultimately founded on the apprehen- 
sion of harmonies, — the discrimination of true and 
real harmonies from those which are false and 
shallow and superficial 1 Now' would not he who 
discerns harmonies most readily, have also the 
readiest discernment of incongruities ? He who 
has the liveliest faculty of comparison, must he 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



132 Words of Business and 

not also have the liveliest faculty of contrast? 
He who is keenly alive to congruities, must he 
not be alive also to incongruities % Or, in other 
words, must not he who has in him wisdom, pos- 
sess wrapped up in that very gift the kindred 
faculty of wit \ 

And it is pleasing to see in experience, that 
oftentimes the men of most depth and seriousness 
of character — the men who in their closets have 
taken the most earnest view of life and have cul- 
tivated heavenly Wisdom most largely, have also 
been men of lively- fancy, sprightly and agreeable 
repartee — seem to have had within them a spring 
of joy and merriment bubbling up, when the ob- 
struction of serious affairs was removed, and cov- 
ering with fertility even the leisure hours of their 
lives. The world's wisest men have mingled mirth 
with earnestness, — they have not gone about with 
starched visage, prim manner, or puritanical grim- 
ace. If they have been deeply enwrapped (as 
the holiest and best men always are enwrapped) 
in the shadows and clouds of life, — they have ever 
and anon walked in its lights, — have not despised 
those gleams of merriment which shoot athwart 
our path, as a relief from the pressure and burden 
of our work and responsibilities. 

Which of us, man or boy, has half the playful- 
ness of the poet Cowper ? Which of us can write 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 133 

a letter like him, — a letter sparkling with sallies 
that never wound, sallies not elaborated, nor 
framed of set purpose, but thrown off in the natu- 
ral buoyancy of high spirits, thrown off simply, 
freshly, and gracefully % And which of us, man 
or boy, can even approach him in the earnestness 
of his religious feeling, — which of us views sin in 
colours half so dark as it wore to his eyes, or is 
equally prepared in mind to apprehend that Love 
of God in Christ, which stands out against the 
black mass of human guilt as a rainbow against 
the thunder-cloud % 

There is, however, one passage of Scripture, 
which, on first sight, seems adverse to what I 
have said, and which requires explanation, before 
I quit this branch of the subject. In the Epistle 
to the Ephesians, St. Paul appears to forbid, under 
the comprehensive term "jesting," every species 
of pleasantry. His words (and that portion of 
them about which no question can arise ought to 
be very awful words to many) are these : — " But 
fornication, and all uncleanness and covetousness, 
let it not be once named among you as becometh 
saints 5 ' (not to practice such things does not meet 
the strictness of God's requirements — we are not 
even to mention them), " neither filthiness nor fool- 
ish talking," — so far all is clear. That such spe- 
cies of conversation should be forbidden, is in ac- 



134: Words of Business and 

cordance with all that we should expect from the 
purity of Christian precept. But the Apostle adds, 
" nor jesting, which are not cou venient ; but rather 
giving of thanks." Now let me again remind my 
readers that whatever precept the Scripture gives, 
not only may be carried out by prayer and exer- 
tion, but must be carried out at all hazards, and 
that to the letter. God, when He has laid down a 
Law, will not indulge us in the smallest deviation 
from it. If in this or any other passage He forbids 
pleasantry, then pleasantry is a sin — a sin which 
like any other sin, grievous or slight, requires all 
the efficacy of Christ's Blood to atone for it, and 
all the Grace of His Spirit to correct and eradicate 
it from our hearts. It is a false and wholly un- 
scriptural view, that God lays down unduly strict 
rules by way of securing as large an amount of 
obedience as can be extracted from us, and that the 
smaller and more harmless infringements of those 
rules will be by Him overlooked. !Nb infringe- 
ment of a divine rule is harmless — every such in- 
fringement is full charged with guilt and misery 
and eternal ruin. Step out of the paling of the 
Divine Law at one point, and you place yourself 
out of the shelter of the whole Law : you are then 
beyond the reach of mercy, except through a Me- 
diator. " For whosoever shall keep the whole 
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 135 

all." Let us ascertain then, clearly, whether God 
does forbid pleasantry ; for, in that case, no langh 
of ours must ever ring again, no humorous word 
ever proceed from our lips, no smile ever sit upon 
our countenance. The word translated jesting is 
evTpaneXla. According to its derivation, it prop- 
erly means " versatility " — aptness in turning to 
another topic, or another resource, when one topic 
or resource is wellnigh exhausted. You see that 
if we regard the word according to its origin and 
etymology, no notion of pleasantry whatever at- 
taches to it. Such a notion, however, may subse- 
quently have gathered round the world, for all that, 
— and I believe that it did. I have not time to go 
through the proof of my position. But I appre- 
hend that in the former words, " filthiness and fool- 
ish talking," the Apostle is forbidding all coarse and 
empty conversation, — that it then strikes him that 
something more beyond these has to be forbidden 
— that there is a kind of conversation very rife 
among men of the world, and very common in 
what is termed the most fashionable society, which 
is not outwardly coarse and obscene (and so not " fil- 
thiness"), nor yet foolish in the usual sense of 
folly, being mixed with quick inuendoes and smart 
repartees (and so not exactly " foolish talking "), 
but in which improprieties are implied though not 
expressed, and in which the natural liveliness of 



136 Words of Business and 

parts of one who knows that Society will not toler- 
ate any thing very gross, vents itself in an insinu- 
ation, either full of moral mischief, or armed with 
a sting. 

" Let there be no coarseness, nor vapid and 
gossiping conversation, — no, nor even the re- 
fined, but sinful raillery of the man of fash- 
ion." Such is, I believe, a fair paraphrase of the 
passage. 1 

The word, if this be its meaning, gives us the 
salutary warning, that albeit pleasantry itself be 
no sin, it is under certain circumstances very 
closely allied with sin. 

By way of preserving pure this offspring of the 
heart's merriment, three cautions should be rigidly 
observed : 

First ; from all our pleasantry must be ban- 
ished any, even the remotest, allusion to impurity 
— which forms the staple of much of this world's 
wit. Pleasantry should be the fruit of a childlike 
playfulness, and of a heart buoyant, because it 
has not the consciousness of guile. If you once 
make it the vehicle of uncleanness, you foul it at 
the spring. 

1 On turning to Archbishop Trench's Synonyms of the New- 
Testament, I see that he takes this view of the meaning of the word 
in question. To his excellent work I refer the reader who wishes 
to" follow up the subject. 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 137 

Secondly; all such sarcasms as hurt another 
person, wound his feelings, and give him unneces- 
sary pain, are absolutely forbidden by the law of 
Christian Love. The flashes of wit should be 
like those of the summer lightning, lambent and 
innocuous. 

' Thirdly ; all such pleasantries as bring any 
thing sacred into ridicule — or, without bringing 
it actually into ridicule, connect with it, in the 
minds of others, ludicrous associations, so that 
they can never see the object, or hear the words, 
without the ludicrous observation being presented 
to them, — are carefully to be eschewed. At all 
times our primary duty, — that which is inalien- 
ably binding upon us, and from which no plea of 
entertainment can excuse us, — is to hallow God's 
Name. 

Let us close our present remarks, by the pray- 
er that God would restore to us that purity of 
heart, which forms the groundwork of a sound and 
Christian mirthfulness, — that He would enable us 
so to believe in the efficacy of His Son's Blood, as 
to have our conscience sprinkled from all guilt 
thereby,— that by the operation of Grace He 
would make us in intention stand aloof from all 
evil, — so that the burden of unforgiven and cher- 
ished sin may no longer make our hearts to stoop ; 
but that joyfulness may enter there to be a per- 



138 Note. 

petual guest, and that, whatever we put our hand 
unto, we may rejoice. 



NOTE ON CHAPTER VII, p. 131. 

" What is the perception of analogies running through all the va- 
rious departments of nature, — the domain of sight, the domain 
of sound, the domain of touch, — but Wisdom or Philosophy ? " 

As an example of this perception of analogies, I extract the 
following passage from the "Advancement of Learning." The 
Author is speaking of those elementary philosophical axioms, 
which he calls " Philosophia Prima : " — 

" Is not the ground, which Maehiavel wisely and largely dis- 
sourseth concerning governments, that the way to establish and 
preserve them, is to reduce them ad principia, a rule in religion 
and nature, as well as in civil administration ? Was not the Per- 
sian magic a reduction or correspondence of the principles and 
architectures of nature to the rules and policy of governments ? 
Is not the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh 
accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in affection ? 
is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide from the close or 
cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric of deceiving expec- 
tation ? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a stop in 
music the same with the playing of light upon the water ? Are 
not the organs of the senses of one kind with the organs of reflec- 
tion, the eye with a glass, the ear with a cave or strait deter- 
mined and bounded ? Neitlier are these only similitudes, as men 
of narrow observation may conceive them to be, but the same foot- 
steeps of nature, treading or printing upon several subjects or 
matters." 



CHAPTEE YIII. 

SPEECH THE INSTRUMENT OF PROPHECY AND 
SACRIFICE. 

" 3Let tjDe toortr of <&$vM &to*U In sou tfcfclg m all tots&om : 
teaching attfr aowomsjunfl one another tn psalms antr fjgmns 
anH spiritual sottfis, sitijjmfl toitt) srace m gour fjeatts to t|je 
3LorU. H — Col. iii. 16. 

"?^e l)at& mate us quests."— Eev. i. 6. 

In our last Chapter, we were engaged in inquir- 
ing what sort of words Our Lord censures, and 
warns us against, under the term " idle." 

We defined idle words to be such as do not 
fulfil the object or objects, for which the faculty of 
Language is given. 

This definition threw us back upon the inquiry : 
" What arethe objects or final causes of Language?" 

And the two objects, to the consideration of 
which our last Chapter was devoted, were — the 
carrying on the necessary business of life, and the 
entertainment of the mind. 



140 Speech the Instrument of 

These are two of the ends, which the gift of 
Speech was designed to promote, and such words 
as really promote either of these ends cannot be 
stigmatized as idle words. 

But words have higher ends than these ; and 
what those higher ends may be, we now proceed 
to consider. 

St. Paul exhibits these higher ends in the first 
passage which stands at the head of this Chapter. 
I believe that in our version it is erroneously punc- 
tuated, and that it should run thus : " Let the word 
of Christ dwell in you richly " — [a general exhor- 
tation, and one having respect to their state of 
mind ; — the Word of Christ was to be stored up 
in their hearts, as water in the treasury of the 
great deep, and to flow forth from their mouths 
in a twofold current, — first, a current towards 
man, irrigating the moral world with fertility, — 
secondly, a current of thanksgiving and praise, 
which should pour itself into the Eosom of 
God] — ".Let the word of Christ dwell in you 
richly ; — in all wisdom teaching and admonishing 
one another " — (this is the highest use of Speech, 
as it looks towards man) — " in psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing thankfully " (ev xdpin 
sometimes has this meaning) " in your hearts to 
the Lord " — (this is the highest use of Speech, as 
it looks towards God). These two ends, then, 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 141 

may be shortly stated as being I. Edification, 
and II. Praise. 1 Let us say a word of each of 
them. 

I. Edification. This word need not be con- 
fined exclusively to Moral or Spiritual Edifica- 
tion. It may be made to embrace every commu- 
nication of knowledge from man to man. 

He who by words throws knowledge into the 
mind of another, which did not exist there pre- 
viously, or developes in that mind some idea 
which was latent in it, but not yet brought to the 
birth, certainly edifies by means of Speech. There 
are other kinds of truth besides Scriptural truth, 
(why should we fear to admit it ?) and he who 
communicates to another any kind of truth (wor- 
thy of the name) is employed in the work of Edifi- 
cation. In a certain important sense, too, all 
truth is God's message and God's revelation, 
though not in the same sense in which the Holy 
Scriptures are. God is said to be the Father of 
lights — observe, not of one light, but of all lights. 
Wherever there is light, it is a ray emanating from 
God. The Scriptures are the organ by which God 
reveals — not all truth, but — all spiritual truth, — 
all such truth as pertains to Salvation. There 
are many kinds of truth, not at all bearing upon 
the question of Eternal Salvation. And these 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



142 Speech the Instrument of 

truths, not affecting our eternal interests, God 
communicates through other instruments, which 
we need not scruple to call organs of revelation, 
if only we understand clearly in what lower sense 
those words are applied. The truths of Natural 
Philosophy are revealed to us. by the human 
Eeason, operating upon the Phenomena of Na- 
ture. The law of gravitation is one of these 
truths ; it was a great light, when first it dawned 
upon the mind of Newton, and from that mind 
was diffused abroad. And it was a light which, 
like all other lights, came from the Father of 
lights. It was God who gave Newton his reason, 
and designed him (fore-ordained him, if you will) 
to discover by it such laws and principles of Na- 
ture, heretofore unknown, as Reason is competent 
to discover. 

Again, the truths which we learn from expe- 
rience are lights. God sends the experience, and 
designs us to learn by it, and gives us Reason, to 
operate upon the experience, in order that we 
may learn. If we desire to know a truth of ex- 
perience, for the guidance of our individual lives, 
we must set our minds and memories to work 
upon what has befallen us, and gain the truth by 
this process. If we desire to know a truth of ex- 
perience, for the guidance of societies, we must 
read History, which is the record of the expe- 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 143 

rience of communities, and there find what causes 
have operated to produce the prosperity and de- 
cay of states. These truths, when we have gained 
them, are a light ; but they are given through 
the organ -of experience, or of Reason operating 
upon experience, not through that of Holy Scrip- 
ture. 

In vain will you inquire of Holy Scripture, 
what is the best form of civil government, or 
what is the cause which retains the Earth within 
its annual orbit ; — the Scripture is not the organ, 
through which God designs to reveal these truths 
to you. 

Again, Instinct is a light, — a scintillation 
which the Father of lights has disparted among 
the inferior creatures. Acting upon it, their lives 
are preserved, and their interests secured. It 
may be but a glimmering, but still it reveals to 
them all that it was designed to reveal. 

There are, then, many forms of truth, accord- 
ing to the different processes by which God com- 
municates it, — and he who conveys truth to an- 
other, so long as it be of an innocent, and not of 
a corrupting, character, — he who diffuses a scrap 
of useful knowledge, or divulges a piece of curious 
information, — is contributing to the great end of 
Edification, and so furthering one of the objects 
for which Language was given. 



144 Speech the Instrument of 

But, of course, the highest and most blessed 
form of Edification is that by which we com- 
municate to one another Religious or Scriptural 
Truth — by which we impart that wisdom, which 
is man's peculiar province (for we are told that 
"the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to de- 
part from evil is understanding"), and without 
which the most abundant resources of genius 
and learning are but gilded dross and a splendid 
folly. 

Now the climax of this form of Edification is 
called a Sermon,- — a sermon being a solemn ad- 
dress, made by one man to others, on subjects of 
the highest import, such as affect their eternal 
welfare. It is not indeed every man's province 
or business to preach a sermon. But it is every 
man's province to speak unto edification, and that 
not simply to the enlightenment of the mind, but 
also to the improvement of the heart. Only the 
man set apart for that function preaches formally 
and in the pulpit, but the man not set apart must 
equally teach and admonish his neighbour " in all 
wisdom." "Ye may all prophesy one by one, 
that all may learn and all may be comforted," 
says the Apostle. This precept has its primary 
reference no doubt to the miraculous gift of Proph- 
ecy : still its spirit and principle, like that of 
every other Scriptural precept, is to be carried 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 145 

out now-a-days, and how it can be carried out I 
see not, so long as the Christian laity hold them- 
selves exempted from moral and spiritual admoni- 
tion, and resent such admonition, when it proceeds 
from any one but a clergyman. It is every man's 
duty, as it ought to be esteemed every man's priv- 
ilege, to say a word for God in society, wherever 
such a word may be discreetly and properly intro- 
duced — to be faithful with his more intimate 
friends, in representing their defects of character 
and conduct — to be thankful himself for receiving 
such representations — and ever to be on the watch, 
to arrest an opportunity of profitable conversa- 
tion. 

II. We now come to the highest of all the 
ends for which the faculty of Speech was given — 
the Praise of God. " In psalms and hymns and 
spiritual songs, singing thankfully in your hearts 
to the Lord." " Therewith," says St. James of 
the tongue, " therewith bless we God, even the 
Father." "By Him," says the Apostle to the 
Hebrews, " let us offer the sacrifice of praise to 
God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving 
thanks to His Name." 

We have seen in the course of these pages that 

man is provided, by his natural constitution, with 

resources in himself for the maintenance of his 

bodily and mental health, and for carrying on the 

1 



146 Speech the Instrument of 

business of life. The power of motion in his limbs 
enables him to take exercise — and perhaps the 
form of exercise which is taken by the simple move- 
ment of the limbs, without any extrinsic adventi- 
tious aid, is of all forms the most conducive to 
health. For the recreation of the mind he has a 
resource in the faculty of Speech. And the same 
faculty enables him to carry on the business of life, 
with a speed and facility which no contrivance of 
art can rival. What a clumsy and tardy method of 
communication is that by paper and ink, as com- 
pared with the speaking face to face ! Nay, even 
the electric telegraph itself, the most marvellous in- 
vention of modern times, is slow in its conveyance 
of ideas in comparison of the human mouth. So 
that for the business and enjoyment of this life, man 
is amply furnished in himself with all resources — 
he need not travel out of his own nature — he has 
his instruments ready at hand. 

But man is made for transactions of a higher de- 
scription than any which relate to this earth ; he 
has communications to hold with Heaven, and in- 
tercourse to carry on with God : he is a " Janus 
bifrons," — with one face he looks towards earth, 
with another he confronts unseen things, and re- 
gards the invisible God. We should expect then 
to find him furnished with resources for heavenly, 
as well as for earthly, intercourse. And such is 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 147 

indeed the case. " With the tongue bless we 
God." Every one has the instrument of a spirit- 
ual sacrifice within him. The spiritual sacrifice 
is that of Psalms and Hymns, and the instrument 
wherewith it is offered is the tongue of man. 

What a noble sacrifice ! With what ease, 
facility, and grace, may the instrument fulfil its 
end ! In a song there is, as I have observed before, 
an element of intelligence and an element of feel- 
ing. ISTot so in a piece of instrumental music, or 
in what is erroneously called the song of birds. 
Those inarticulate sounds, — beautifully touching, 
exquisitely pathetic, as some of them are, — express 
only feeling without intelligence, — they are the 
voice of the soul and not of the spirit. On the 
other hand, a speech or address has only a single 
element. It is the voice of the Reason : I deny 
not that it may move the feelings, and often aims 
at doing so ; but the body — the substantial part — 
of a speech must always be its argument (the ap- 
peals to the affections, which a speaker makes, 
being only subsidiary to his argument), an argument 
is the province of the spirit, not of the soul of man. 

A song combines both — the articulations of 
Reason and the gushing forth of feeling, — and 
therefore a spiritual song, — a song addressed to 
God, — embraces the highest exercise of the highest 
human powers. 



148 Speech the Instrument of 

And let me add, lest I should seem to exclude 
from this grand service of Praise all those whom 
defect of ear or voice precludes from literal sing- 
ing — that a Poem is a Song, and that, therefore, a 
Psalm or Hymn, even though not sung, but simply 
recited, is a spiritual song. The Ancients were 
aware of this ; and accordingly with them the poet 
was identified with the minstrel, and the same 
word " carmen " is employed in Latin to denote 
the effusions of both. For in deed either the rhyme 
and metre of Poetry, or its more essential attri- 
butes of figure, image, and lofty diction, may be 
justly regarded as the outcoming of feeling, and 
as a substitute for the musical tones of the voice. 

Contemplate Redeemed Man, then, — contem- 
plate yourself, — as having been constituted the 
High Priest of God. It is of necessity that you 
should have something to offer. And the tongue 
supplies you with a resource for sacrifice. God 
provides you not with a lamb, but with a song, 
for a burnt-offering. With Angels and Arch- 
angels, and all the Company of Heaven, you are 
required to pour forth your soul in strains of 
thanksgiving and praise to the Most High. 

This is a sacrifice, from the offering of which 
no one is exempt. It is the sacrifice appointed 
for Eedeemed Man in his priestly character. For 
let it ever be borne in mind that all Christians — 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 149 

all the redeemed of God — are, in a certain most 
important sense, priests, and that upon all of 
them, as snch, devolve priestly functions. " He 
hath made ns priests." Eor does this doctrine, 
rightly apprehended, interfere, in" the smallest 
degree, with that of a constituted Ministry set 
apart for the fulfilment of certain functions, which 
none may, without awful presumption, invade. 
Why should the two doctrines be more inconsis- 
tent under the New Covenant than they were 
under the Old ? It is said of the whole Israelitish 
people, in the most distinct and emphatic terms : 
" Ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests, and 
an holy nation." All were priests; and as a 
priest, each male was to present himself before 
God, with an offering, at the three great Festi- 
vals. Yet when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram 
presumed upon this sanctity of the entire congre- 
gation to arrogate to themselves the office of burn- 
ing incense, the Divine displeasure was manifested 
in a form so peculiar, that it has no exact parallel 
throughout the whole compass of Scripture. 

The solution of the apparent inconsistency be- 
tween the priestly functions of the whole congre- 
gation, and those of the Ministry, I take to be 
this : The line of Aaron under the Old Covenant, 
and Bishops, Priests, and Deacons under the New, 
are Kcpresentatives before God of the entire Peo- 



150 Speech the Instrument of 

pie. Representatives, — that is the idea. Now 
it does not follow that whatever the representative 
is authorized to do, that the party represented 
may do. All Englishmen, who have a certain 
stake in the country, may vote at an election of a 
member for the Lower House, and then they are 
in their place, and act constitutionally ; but most 
assuredly they would put themselves out of their 
place, if they were to force a passage into the 
House of Commons, and on the ground of their 
having a voice in the Government, attempt to 
make a speech there. That is simply arrogating 
a function which is none of theirs. 

This is a homely image ; but it may help to 
impress the truth upon the reader's mind. We, 
the Ministry, are the Representatives before God 
of you — who are yourselves his Royal Priesthood. 
You may, — nay, you must daily — seek to edify 
others with your lips as the passing occasions of 
life give you opportunity of doing so. You may, 
— nay, you must daily — present the Spiritual Sa- 
crifice of Praise (not only praying to God for 
what you need, but glorifying Him in Psalms and 
Hymns for all you receive, and specially for Christ, 
the Unspeakable Gift). But as it did not follow 
that an Israelite, because he was a member of the 
Kingdom of Priests, might therefore slay a vicfim 
at the Tabernacle door, or burn incense before 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 151 

Jehovah, so it does not follow that a Christian not 
ordained, may address his fellow-Christians in the 
Congregation, or offer np prayers in their name, 
or bless them in the Great Name of the Triune 
God ; much less that he may break and bless 
those Elements of Bread and Wine, which under 
the Law correspond to the Sacrifices under the 
Gospel. 

It is well for us, however, to bear in mind, that, 
while the Ministry of the Minister will pass away, 
that of the Christian will endure for ever. As the 
bloody sacrifices, which were the shadows of a 
coming Christ, projected beforehand upon the 
Church of God, have fled away, so also shall the 
Supper of the Lokd, which is the commemoration 
of Christ already come, pass away when He re- 
turns. The great Ordinance of the Gospel has a 
term fixed for it. We are directed to show forth 
the Lord's death by the elements of Bread and 
Wine till, — and only till, — He come. But even 
then, although the Ministry of the Minister will 
be at an end, the ministry of Psalms and Hymns 
will continue, and protract itself throughout Eter- 
nity. The great and enduring nobility of Praise 
is this, — that it shall abide for ever, that it is the 
ordinance of the Church of God, which has the 
stamp of perpetuity upon it. When there is no 
void in the heart, no want to be supplied, Prayer 



152 JVote. 

shall expire. "When every soul, save the irreme- 
diably lost, has been both brought to Christ, 
Preaching shall have no further use. When Christ- 
is manifested face to face, we shall no longer need 
to regard Him through the dark mirror of Sacra- 
ments. Praise and Thanksgiving alone shall have 
a duration equal with the Love of God and the 
glory of Christ — they shall roll the tale of that 
Love, and the declaration of that Glory, along the 
ages of an Eternal Future. 



NOTE ON CHAPTER VI., p. 141 

" These two ends, then, may be shortly stated as being I. Edification, 
and U. Praise." 

In other words, it is by Speech that man is a Prophet (or 
Preacher) to his brethren, and a Priest (for the offering of spirit- 
ual sacrifice) to God. 

It is very interesting to connect this idea with that set forth in 
a previous Chapter, where we pointed out the heavenly analogy of 
the connexion between Speech and Reason. We saw in that Chap- 
ter, that Speech in the Nature of man, is the representation of 
Christ in the Nature of God, our Lord being called The Word. 
Now we know that Christ is both Prophet, Priest, and King. As 
a Prophet, He was sent by the Father, to instruct us in the Law 
of Liberty. As a Priest, He negotiates our acceptance on the 
ground of Jlis Sacrifice, and intercedes for us in the Heavenly 
Temple. As a King, He rules us by His Providence, His Word, 
and His Spirit. 

Similarly, Speech may be viewed in a threefold aspect. One 



Note. 153 

end of it is the Edification of Man. Another is the spiritual Sa- 
crifice of Psalms and Hymns, which Speech enables us to offer to 
God. And as discriminating man from the inferior creation, Speech 
may justly be said to be the Royal Faculty. It was in the exercise 
of his sovereignty over the beasts of the field, that Adam gave 
them names. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HINTS FOE THE GUIDANCE OF CONVEESATION. 

" CStyerefore, m$ Mbelro brethren, ht zbevg man tie stotft to 
fjear, slob to speafc." — James i. 19. 

We have now completed our consideration of 
idle words. 

We have arrived at the definition of an idle 
word, by ascertaining what words are not idle. 
And the definition is this : " All such words are 
idle, as contribute nothing either to the carrying 
on of the necessary business of life, or to innocent 
amusement, or to the lower or higher forms of 
instruction, or to the glory of Almighty God." 

It remains that I should furnish some practical 
hints for agreeable and useful conversation. And 
of useful conversation there are two kinds, corre- 
sponding to the two forms of instruction — a lower 
and a higher. We may converse on earthly sub- 
jects of interest, or on divine and spiritual top- 
ics. Religious conversation shall occupy our next 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 155 

Chapter. "We will now confine ourselves to con- 
versation on subjects (profitable and interesting 
indeed, but) not religious. 

Let us consider, first, what principles Holy 
Scripture lays down for our guidance in this 
matter. 

The passage which stands at the head of this 
Chapter, is the chief New Testament passage 
which affirms the principle on which Conversation 
is to be regulated. " Let every man be swift to 
hear, slow to speak." Self-restraint in talking, 
and readiness to receive information, is to be the 
regulating principle. The spirit of the Old Testa- 
ment precept on this subject, is the same with 
that of the ]STew : its letter is even more solemn. 
It runs thus : " In the multitude of words there 
wanteth not sin ; but he that refraineth his lips is 
wise." 

It is true that, in the first of these passages, 
the primary reference is in all probability to those 
words by which religious instruction is to be con- 
veyed. For, in the immediately preceding con- 
text, St. James has been speaking of God's having 
begotten us by the word of truth, — that is, by 
the word of the Gospel, — and he then prosecutes 
the idea, by inculcating restraint in speaking or 
preaching the Gospel. " Wherefore, my beloved 
brethren" (observe the significance of the "where- 



156 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

fore ; " it shows that the precept, which it intro- 
duces, is the legitimate con elusion from a doctrine 
previously affirmed), " Wherefore, my beloved 
brethren, let every man be swift to hear [this 
word of truth], and slow to speak it," — exactly 
harmonizing with the advice given further on in 
the Epistle (chap. iii. 1), "My brethren, be not 
many masters " (^77 ttoXXoI dtdaoitaXoi yiveode, — lit- 
erally, " Be not many of yon teachers ") — do not 
lightly covet the position of an instructor in Di- 
vine Truth ; for thereby your responsibilities will 
be increased, and your shortcoming aggravated — 
" knowing that we " (the ministers of God's "Word, 
the Apostle among the number) " shall receive " 
(if unfaithful to our trust) "the greater damna- 
tion." !No doubt, with the more educated Jewish 
converts, specially those who had imbibed Phari- 
saical principles, the arrogating to themselves the 
position of teachers would be a very popular form 
of sin. No doubt there were many among them 
who trusted, as St. Paul intimates, that " they 
themselves were guides of the blind, lights of 
them which were in darkness, instructors of the 
ignorant, and teachers of babes." A similar 
spirit of presumption and censoriousness is con- 
demned by Our Lord in the Sermon on the 
Mount, where He recommends His hearers to 
cast out first the beam out of their own eye, be- 



Hints for the Gtddance of Conversation. 157 

fore they anim advert on the mote which is in 
their brother's eye. 

It seems probable, therefore, that the words 
of St. James refer, in the first instance, to words 
of religious instruction or admonition. 

But only in the first instance. We must not 
exclude a subordinate, but very important refer- 
ence, to the whole range of Conversation. Though 
we should always, in the first instance, endeavour 
to discover the contextual connexion of the words 
of Holy Scripture, no passage is to be so pinned 
down to one narrow department of meaning, as 
that it shall not be allowed to soar above its con- 
text. A large and comprehensive view must be 
taken of Scriptural precepts, and of this among 
the rest. One great use of words is, that we may 
edify others thereby. This may be done while in- 
structing them on ordinary subjects, as well as in 
a higher form, by direct religious teaching. More- 
over, all words — and not only those spoken in a 
religious assembly — are uttered oefore God. He 
hears them all, and notes their character. " Lo, 
there is not a word in my tongue, but Thou, O 
Lord, knowest it altogether." So that involved 
in such prohibitions as — " When ye pray, use not 
vain repetitions, as the heathen do," — and again, 
" Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine 
heart be hasty to utter any thing before God, for 



158 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

God is in heaven, and thou upon earth ; therefore, 
let thy words be few," — is a general precept of 
self-restraint in the use of words. And, accord- 
ingly, such a precept, as we have seen, occurs in 
the Inspired Yolume without any special refer- 
ence to words of religious instruction. " In the 
multitude of words there wanteth not sin." And 
again, " He that hath knowledge spareth his 
words : and a man of understanding is of an ex- 
cellent spirit." " Even a fool, when he holdeth 
his peace, is counted wise : and he that shutteth 
his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." 

Having thus seen what principle Holy Scrip- 
ture lays down for the guidance of Conversation, 
let us proceed to give some hints for the applica- 
tion of the principle to practice. 

I. " Let every man be swift to hear." 

A desire of gaining instruction is one of the 
first dispositions with which we must engage in 
Conversation, if we desire to make it profitable, — 
nay, even entertaining, — to both parties. 

Let it be considered a fixed and ascertained 
truth, that your neighbour, however he may be 
inferior to you in some points of station and at- 
tainment, is able to impart to you some informa- 
tion which you do not possess. This is not a 
fancy, it is a real truth. We are told that as to 
spiritual endowments mankind are all one Body, — 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 159 

that the Lord has not lodged the fulness of His 
gifts in any one person, save the God-man, — that 
the wisdom, knowledge, ability of all mere men 
are but fragmentary, — that one has the qualifica- 
tion which his neighbour lacks, and lacks the 
qualification which his neighbour has. And we 
are informed further of the significance and design 
of this arrangement — it is pointed out to us how 
this diversity of gifts in each individual contrib- 
utes not only to the dependence of all upon One 
Great Head, but to mutual interdependence. The 
design is, that there should be an imperative de- 
mand among men for the services of one another 
— that the need of one man may be supplied out 
of the abundance of another, and that the person 
so assisted should reciprocate, by giving of what 
he possesses. And what is said of spiritual en- 
dowments, and of this world's wealth, applies with 
equal truth to the great stock of general knowl- 
edge disparted among mankind. It too is un- 
equally distributed — one man has the ten talents, 
and another &ve, and a third but one ; — yet the 
most cursory experience of life, the daily work by 
which the livelihood is earned, gives some portion 
of it to all. A mechanic knows how to perform 
the manual processes of his trade — a philosopher, 
though deeply versed in the principles upon which 
the art is founded, would probably handle the 



160 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

tools in such a manner as to produce a certain 
failure. The knowledge of books, and an exten- 
sive acquaintance with literature, may easily con- 
sist with a profound ignorance of common things, 
external nature, or the current intelligence of the 
day. Let it be remembered that this current in- 
telligence, if it concern worthy subjects, and not 
the frivolous movements of modem society, — if it 
turn upon political measures, or the events pass- 
ing on the theatre of the world,— is a legitimate 
part of the great fund of knowledge, and that a 
man who has mastered it is so far forth a better 
informed man than he who has not. The events 
of the day — those, I mean, which affect our coun- 
try and the world at large — are the elements of 
Modem History. 

Let it be assumed, then, that every man has 
some piece of knowledge to impart to us, which 
we ourselves do not possess. 

And, this being the case, let us, when either 
casually or by design we enter into company, set 
ourselves to the finding out what that something 
is. Possibly it is nothing in our own line — noth- 
ing that is to be found in books — nothing con- 
nected with any ambitious department of knowl- 
edge. And, therefore, you think it is not worth 
your listening to — much less, your casting about 
how you may extract it. Oh the narrowness of 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 161 

tlie human mind, and the contemptible vanity of 
the human heart ! " Because it does not lie in 
my department, — because the subject, though 
really a subject of human knowledge, is not suffi- 
ciently dignified for my consideration, — because 
my mind happens to be a perfect blank upon such 
topics, — therefore I need not care to know aught 
about it." Alas ! my brother, such knowledge, 
though it moves in an humble sphere, may deal 
with subjects which affect the well-being of the 
human race more intimately than any sublimer 
study. The sublime processes of nature are not 
the most essential processes. It is not the flash 
of the lightning, nor the distant muttering of the 
thunder, nor the tumbling of the avalanche rever- 
berated by a thousand hills, — it is not these which 
are the most potent agencies of Nature for good, 
but rather the distillation of the little dewdrop on 
the blade of grass, and the noiseless stealing down 
of the early and the latter rain. And the sublime 
processes of Art are not the most essential pro- 
cesses. It may be much questioned, whether the 
manufacture of a balloon is half as serviceable to 
mankind as the manufacture of a drain. And, 
similarly, thy brother's humbler knowledge may 
pertain to matters much more essential than thy 
more aspiring flight of wisdom. 

Our practical suggestion is, then, that an effort 



162 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

should be made to extract from those, with whom 
the occasions of life bring us into contact, that por- 
tion of useful knowledge, which out of the common 
stock they have appropriated to themselves. " Let 
every man be swift to hear." 

What are the subjects in which, by his circum- 
stances and position, he is likely to be interested ? 
How can I draw him on to speak of them ? If 
these questions were uppermost in the mind, and if 
conversation were pursued in the spirit of them, 
it would not be so barren a thing as it often is. 
The sense of unprofitableness which so often op- 
presses us after an hour spent in company, would 
be effectually dissipated. And more than this — 
such a plan would relieve conversation of the d ill- 
ness which so often attaches to it. How often do 
we long to escape from the necessity of talking, 
which courtesy imposes, as from a bitter thralldom ! 
How often does the exertion become intolerably 
irksome, because it really consists in fetching up 
from the mine of the Memory small buckets full of 
commonplace and formal remarks, in which neither 
party feels the smallest interest, and which are 
only bandied to and fro from a false feeling that 
to drop them altogether would not be well-bred, 
and that somebody must say something. Intol- 
erable drudgery, indeed. ISTow let us make the 
experiment, whether the motto, " Swift to hear," 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 163 

may not furnish a remedy. Discarding every 
notion of self-conceit, let us regard ourselves in 
conversation as learners, in quest of something 
which will furnish us better for the various occa- 
sions of life. We shall succeed, no doubt, clum- 
sily at first — better by a little practice — by God's 
Grace, well in time. But be our success*what it 
may, we must, as Christians, absolutely renounce 
all vapid words, which have in them no salt of wit 
or wisdom. "We are not at liberty — plainly not — 
to talk for talking's sake — to say something at all 
hazards — to throw out words, without the desire 
either to amuse or instruct. The warning against 
idle words must be heeded, at whatever expense 
of freedom in conversation. For He uttered the 
warning, whose lips are full of Grace, and at our 
peril may we slight even the least of His Com- 
mandments. 

II. We now turn to the second part of the 
Scriptural Precept — " Let every man be slow to 
speak." This is involved in, and would naturally 
follow from, what went before. For if a man be 
simply desirous to receive instruction, he will not 
be over ready, although he will not be backward, 
to communicate it. The precept, however, is of 
such importance, that it cannot be left to infer- 
ence. We need not to arrive at it in the way of 
deduction : it is given us directly and explicitly, 



164 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

in a form which cannot be evaded : " Let every 
man be slow to speak." IsTow, as one design of 
the former precept was to communicate an inter- 
est to conversation, by setting each party upon an 
inquiry, as to what knowledge his neighbour might 
be possessed of, so the main scope of this is to pre- 
vent oife party from selfishly engrossing all the 
interest of it. 

Is it not remarkable how minute and detailed 
the "Word of God is in its censure of evil, and how 
profound, in its analysis and exposure of the mo- 
tives from which evil springs ? Though, in com- 
pliance with its own principles, its words are few, 
yet how exploring are they — how do they detect 
the hidden flaw in our social intercourse, and point 
to its origin ! 

The way of society — the principles upon which 
the intercourse of the world is regulated— T is this : 
It is assumed as an axiom, that the greater part 
of mankind have nothing to contribute to the 
common stock of knowledge, but that some fa- 
voured individuals have a gift of entertaining 
others by their Conversation, however little they 
may instruct them. The individuals thus favoured 
soon feel, and begin to exercise, their own powers. 
The admiration, even of a small circle, flatters 
their vanity, and they bid high for it, by making 
every effort, when in company, to be thought 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 165 

agreeable. Nor is this effort, apart from the mo- 
tive which originates it, any thing but commend- 
able. It is every man's duty to seek to entertain 
and instruct the society in which he moves. But, 
then, there is in the effort of the worldling the 
poison root of selfishness, which vitiates it at the 
core. He cares not for pleasing others, except so 
far as they yield him the homage of admiration. 
His versatility, and his volubility, his anecdotes, 
and his bon-mots, are, from beginning to end, a 
process of self-glorification. And so long as he 
encounters no obstacle in the pursuit of his ob- 
jects, his humour is complaisant, and his de- 
meanour affable. But let another person, equally 
gifted, enter the same sphere, and, with no less 
pretensions to a hearing, claim to be heard. This 
will often develope, to the view of all, the selfish- 
ness which before was latent. Discontented and 
mortified by having found a rival in the power of 
entertaining, the man retires into himself. If he 
cannot be the first object of attraction, he does 
not care to entertain at all. 

But, Keader, the way of society is not God's 
way, nor are the principles upon which worldly 
intercourse is regulated, Scriptural principles. 
God teaches that no man may put himself in a 
false position, by arrogating to himself the exclu- 
sive power of entertaining and instructing the 



166 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

society in which he moves, — that, as no man is 
really endued with all knowledge in every de- 
partment, so it is hypocrisy and a lie for any man 
to pretend that he is, and to monopolize conversa- 
tion, as if he were : — " Let every man be slow to 
speak." Scripture prescribes the disposition with 
which a man should enter upon conversation, as 
one of candour in confessing ignorance, and of 
readiness to receive instruction : — " Let every man 
be swift to hear." 

Now, if these principles were uniformly car- 
ried out, how different a scene would society pre- 
sent from that which we so often witness. The 
secret heart-burnings and jealousies, which are 
sometimes fomented by an evening in company, 
would cease, and Conversation, instead of lapsing 
into the vanity of an empty display, whose hol- 
lowness is apparent afterwards, would become a 
source of mutual profit and satisfaction to all con- 
cerned in it. 

" But may I not be brilliant in conversation, — 
may I not shine in that, which I know to be my 
own department \ " says some one, who feels that 
he is gifted that way. You may, nay, you must, 
exercise every gift that God has given you, but 
no gift may you exercise, if you are a liegeman 
of the Cross, and a follower of the Eazarene, 
with the design of attracting admiration. Words 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 167 

were given for the ends of entertainment and 
instruction — they were given for the glorifica- 
tion of God, bnt I nowhere read that they were 
given for the glorification of self. In order to see 
more clearly how serious the fault is, which we 
are censuring, observe that the operation of the 
same principle which leads a man to engross con- 
versation, by way of glorifying himself, turns him 
into an Heresiarch in the higher sphere of religious 
teaching. For what is an Heresiarch ? An He- 
resiarch is one who, in virtue of his own peculiar 
constitution of mind, seizes upon some one point 
in the ample compass of Divine Truth. In the 
narrowness of his mind, he conceives all truth to 
be wrapped up in this one doctrine, — he looks 
down upon those counterbalancing doctrines, which 
are equally based upon the authority of Holy 
Scripture, and which present themselves more 
forcibly to minds of another cast. He does not 
apprehend the catholicity of God's Truth, or the 
fact that all men's minds are but partial recepta- 
cles of it — that one mind is more vividly impress- 
ed by one portion of it, another by another. Ac- 
cordingly, if endowed with the gift of Speech, he 
seeks to gain attention for his one aspect of Truth, 
and to make all others do homage to it. He suc- 
ceeds : and (for it is pleasant to be listened to) 
success gratifies his vanity. He forms an entire 



168 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

theory upon his one doctrine, magnifying it in 
very undue proportions, — and attracts notice, and 
wins followers. Perhaps Schism (that is, separa- 
tion from the Church) follows. The Church holds 
all truth, and he holds a part. The Church flat- 
ters no man's vanity, and he has a vast stock of 
vanity, which requires to be flattered. He can 
speak, and, therefore, to speak he will be forward 
— if not in the Church, at least in the Meeting 
House. It is the same vanity, and the same for- 
getfulness that every one holds a portion of truth, 
which, in a sphere not religious, leads a man to 
that monopoly of conversation, which the Scrip- 
ture censures. 

Finally, a valuable rule for the Guidance of 
our Conversation is to be obtained from a passage 
to which I have as yet made no reference. We 
know the manner in which Holy Scripture speaks 
— we know how brief and chastised are its delin- 
eations, and yet how significant — we know, when 
it paints character, how few and simple are the 
touches of the pencil, and yet how graphic and 
expressive — how, through the whole Yolume (com- 
posed by divers human authors, and at periods of 
time separated by long intervals), runs the charac- 
teristic of few words, and deep wisdom — little 
rhetoric, and much point. Well, let us make it a 
model for the style of our Conversation. We are 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 169 

bidden so to do. Let us be chastised in our talk. 
Let us strive that, as far as may be, each word we 
drop may have some point in it — some worth and 
weight, and solidity. In other, and better lan- 
guage, — " If any man speak, let him speak as 

THE OKACLES OF GOD." 



CHAPTEE X. 

ON RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION. 

" girto ttjeg talfeelr tojjeQer of alt tljese tfnnss fco^icf) f)afc t)ap* 
jjetxetr. ^ntr it came to jiass, tijat, fcoijtle tj)e# commune!) to* 
Setter antr reasoned $estts iumscW oreto neac anU toeixt tottf) 
tjem." — Ltjke xxiv. 14, 15. 

Otjr subject in these pages has been Speech — 
in its origin — in its responsibility — and in its ap- 
plication to the "Worship of God, and to the enter- 
tainment and edification of the mind. We en- 
deavoured, in our last Chapter, to give some prac- 
tical suggestions for conversation on topics merely 
useful and interesting, without being directly relig- 
ious ; in this final essay of the series, we shall 
endeavour to give some hints on the grave and 
important topic of Spiritual Conversation. 

I. Now it is evident, at the outset, that of re- 
ligious conversation there may be two kinds. Such 
conversation may turn upon that which passes 
within. We may reveal to our friends our religious 



On Religious Conversation. 171 

experience (meaning by religions experience, the 
fluctuating conditions of our spiritual life, the re- 
ligious impressions made by various means upon 
our souls, the sentiments and reflections to which 
circumstances give rise within us, the personal 
dealings which we conceive Almighty God to have 
had with us in Providence or in Grace, and so 
forth) — or we may discuss religious truth which is 
external to our own minds, and of which a vast 
field lies open to us, inviting that investigation 
which is sometimes best carried on by the contact 
of mind with mind. 

Thus, assuming, for the sake of an illustration, 
that St. Peter was one of the disciples, who, on 
the day of the Resurrection, walked to Emmaus 
(as we know he was not) — he might have discussed 
with his companion the shame and remorse which 
ever since his fall had hung like a dark cloud over 
his mind, and his earnest wish to make amends to 
his Master, now that it seemed as if amends could 
no longer be made ; or the conversation of the two 
comrades might have turned, as it actually did 
turn, upon Christ, — they might have talked to- 
gether of the things which had happened, taking a 
summary retrospect of that wonderful career, now 
that it had closed upon them (as they thought) for 
ever, and refreshing one another's memory on its 
various incidents— the miracles by which its prog- 



172 On Religious Conversation. 

ress had been marked, and the words of Grace, 
which, on various occasions, had fallen from the 
lips of Him who spake as never man spake. 

Let us take each of these kinds of religions con- 
versation in order, and consider how far each o£ 
them is intrinsically proper and edifying. 

Speech ( and therefore conversation, which is a 
form of speech ) is the index or expression of the 
thoughts of man. Language is the outcoming of 
the human mind. 

Now there is an analogy between the mind of 
man, in its operation upon ideas, and the senses of 
man, in their operation upon matter. 

The senses — sight, hearing, touch and the rest, 
— are so constructed as to throw us into the outer 
world. The senses are perfect, only when we for- 
get that we have them, and throw ourselves, by 
the exercise of them, into the various objects which 
are presented to us. 

"When, for example, we gaze upon a fair land- 
scape from some eminence, and are wholly ab- 
sorbed in the beauty of the plain outstretched 
beneath our feet, dotted here and there with 
cattle, and intersected with silver streams — upon 
the outline, undulating or jagged, of the purple 
hills in the distance — and upon the sheets of water 
which lie embosomed in the woods, the sense of 
sight has fulfilled its object in the just and legiti- 



On Religious Conversation. 173 

mate way, it has operated naturally, as it ought 
to operate. We have not seen the eye ; for no 
sense operates upon itself. What we have seen 
is the object. Of the eye we have lost all 
thought. We have not been conscious even of 
possessing an eye. We have been engaged with 
the landscape. 

It is the same with the other senses. They all 
throw themselves, by their natural constitution, 
outward. 'None of them have any reflex action 
upon themselves. And they are in a sound state, 
only when we forget that we possess them. A 
strain of music enchains the ear; it wakens up a 
train of associations in the mind, which carry the 
listener far away from the circumstances which at 
present surround him, — but he is quite uncon- 
scious of the inlet by which those associations 
entered, — he thinks not of the ear. A sweet 
breath of hay or seaweed bears him back again to 
the time of his youth, when he played in the hay- 
iield or upon the beach, — he lives again for a time 
amid the scenes of his childhood, — but he thinks 
not of the organ by which the impression is re- 
ceived. 

I say, he thinks not of it. There is no reflec- 
tion of the mind upon the operation of the senses. 
And, of course, there is no reflex action of the 
senses upon themselves. The eye is not so con- 



174 On Religious Conversation. 

stituted that it can see itself, nor the ear that it 
can hear itself: their construction points to some- 
thing in the outward world — a scene, or a sound, 
which they are to apprehend. 

Now yon are to observe, that, if there were 
any snch reflex action, either of the mind upon 
the operations of sense, or of the senses upon 
themselves, this would indicate disease in the or- 
gans of sense. If a man's attention, or conscious- 
ness, is divided between the landscape and his 
eye, it is because the eye is not single, there is 
some flaw in it. If, while listening to a strain of 
music, he imagines that he hears it in a singular 
or unwonted manner, — that he hears the notes 
doubled, for example, or unduly prolonged, — this 
is because the sense of hearing is out of order. In 
any healthy exercise of the organ, he would not be 
sensible of its presence : when he is so sensible, 
that indicates something amiss. 

Now, there is a resemblance between man's 
mind and his senses, as generally there is a cor- 
respondence between the outward and the inward 
frame. The senses are adapted by their construc- 
tion to the matter which is outside of, and inde- 
pendent of, themselves. The mind is adapted by 
its constitution to the apprehension and contem- 
plation of objects, which are quite independent 
of, and outside of, its internal mechanism. Thus, 



On Religious Conversation. 175 

for example, the affections of fear, hope, compas- 
sion, and love, have reference to certain objects 
upon which they are designed to fasten. Fear 
does not fear itself, nor compassion compassionate 
itself, nor love love itself, but fear apprehends 
danger, and makes us fly; compassion fastens 
upon distress, and disposes us to relieve it ; love 
upon some object of natural affection, and disposes 
us to benefit that object. 

And, in the purely intellectual faculties, the 
same feature is observable. Our minds are adapt- 
ed to the investigation and contemplation of truths, 
which are independent of them, and outside them. 
They may investigate the laws which govern the 
universe, from the phenomena which the universe 
presents. They may throw themselves, through 
the medium of history, into scenes which have 
been enacted in bygone ages. Finally, they may 
contemplate the Spiritual Truths propounded in 
the Bible, and derive upon themselves, from that 
contemplation, a happy and an holy influence. 

But supposing that, instead of operating thus, 
the feelings, affections, and thoughts, should fall 
back upon themselves, and contemplate their own 
operations. Supposing that in an hour of immi- 
nent peril — when on the verge' of a shipwreck — 
the mind were to run, not upon the danger, but 
upon the affection of fear — that, instead of taking 



176 On Religious Conversation. 

all due precautions, we were engaged in a specu- 
lation upon the origin and precise amount of 
the alarm experienced on the present occasion. Or, 
supposing that, when our path was crossed by an 
object of- distress, we paused, to analyze the feeling 
of compassion, as to how far it might be genuine 
on the present occasion, or how far other motives 
might dispose us to relieve this case. Or, suppos- 
ing that we always had in our minds the affection 
felt by us for some member of our family, and, as 
having it much upon our minds, were constantly 
to be bringing it forward in conversation, and 
exposing it to others. Or, supposing, finally, that 
in a piece of historical research, a man were to 
please himself, not with a picture of ancient man- 
ners, elicited by a careful study of ancient monu- 
ments, and the patching together of notices, found 
in sundry dry old chronicles, but with the thought 
of his own acumen in shedding this light upon an 
obscure period, — what should we infer from all 
this, as to the soundness or unsoundness of the 
mental and moral powers? We should say at 
once that they were morbid, and their action un- 
healthy. As the eye is conscious of the landscape, 
not of its own visual power, the ear conscious of 
the music, not of its own structure, — so the mind 
ought to be conscious only of the external objects 
upon which it fastens, and when it turns back 



On Religions Conversation. 177 

again upon itself, this is a proof of some disease 
inherent in it. 

Now, possibly, if the reader has followed me 
thus far, his mind will jump prematurely to one 
conclusion, which seems to present an objection 
to what has been said. 

You will naturally ask, — is, then, all reflection 
of the mind upon its own processes, to be discour- 
aged ? Is not self-examination a duty prescribed 
in Holy Scripture ? And what is self-examination, 
but a reflection of the mind upon its own processes ? 
Is it intended to suggest that we should not con- 
stantly be looking into our own hearts and char- 
acters, and endeavouring to act upon the maxim, 
said of old to have come down from heaven, yv&dt 
oeavrov ? 

Self-Examination, in the present circumstances 
of our nature, is, no doubt, a most important and 
arduous duty. But it is no less true, that Self- 
Examination has reference to a flaw in our nature, 
and in a -perfect condition of the mental and moral 
powers would not exist. The object of Self-Ex- 
amination is to ascertain how far our hearts are 
right with God. But supposing (which, since the 
Fall is a purely imaginary case) that our hearts 
were never wrong with God : — that the magnetic 
needle of the Will always turned steadily, and 
without oscillation, in the direction of God — could 
8* 



178 



On Religious Conversation. 



there be then any place for Self-Exaniination ? 
Surely none. Self-Exaraination was unknown in 
Paradise. Our first parents, before the Fall, were 
innocents in the strictest sense of that term, throw- 
ing themselves, with keenest enjoyment, into all 
the objects of delight which surrounded them in 
the pure and happy garden ; but never analyzing 
their own sensations, or reflecting upon the instru- 
mentality by which they were produced. We may 
conceive them to have been essentially unreflect- 
ing (in the limited sense of the word reflection) — 
absorbed, indeed, in the contemplation of the 
Divine Goodness, and in the appreciation of those 
blessings with which He had crowned their cup, — 
but self in no shape entering into their thoughts. 
But, by the Fall, a great flaw entered both into 
the physical and moral nature of man. Thence- 
forth it became necessary for the physician to ex- 
amine the structure of the organs of sense, and to 
acquaint himself, as far as possible, with the theory 
of sensation, in order that he might minister to the 
relief of the organs of sense, when deranged. And, 
thenceforth, it became necessary to exercise Self- 
Examination, — that man should analyze his own 
motives, should investigate his own feelings, and 
try by the revealed rule of right, his conduct and 
his character. All this was made necessary by 
superinduced evil — it was not necessary originally. 



On jReligious Conversation. 179 

And now we have sufficiently examined the 
roots of the subject, to see our way to an answer 
to the question raised at the outset of the Chapter. 
And the answer I give is this, — The revelation 
of our own inward experience to other men — the 
talking of our own frames and feelings, or of the 
personal dealings which God may have had with 
us — is only desirable, so far forth as it contributes 
to the great end of Self-Examination. If it tends 
to give us self-knowledge — to develope more fully 
in our consciousness our own unworthiness and 
God's great Love — then doubtless it is desirable. 

By the help of this principle, we must make 
out when conversation of this kind would be an 
advantage, and when it would not. The object 
of Self-Examination is the gaining a deeper sense 
of our own sinfulness. And the object of gaining 
this deeper sense is that we may recur with a 
stronger faith and more entire simplicity to Christ. 
If then this deeper sense of sinfulness can be for- 
warded or fostered by the disclosure either to an 
intimate friend, or to a clergyman (yes, to a clergy- 
man, — we are not afraid of truth, because the 
Eoman Church abuses and caricatures it) of our 
own inward religious life, we shall do well and 
wisely to make that disclosure, and to solicit the 
prayers for us of the person to whom it is made. 
The doing so would only be acting in accordance 



180 On Religious Conversation. 

with the inspired principle — "Confess your sins 
one to another, and pray one for another, that ye 
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a 
righteous man availeth much," I feel, however, 
that it behoves us at all times to be jealously watch- 
ful over our own minds, while making such commu- 
nications. We may suffer real spiritual mischief by 
a too free or too general disclosure of feelings, 
which, as turuing upon our own personal relation 
to God, are invested with a peculiar sacredness. 
It will be well for me briefly to point out how this 
mischief may arise. 

Who, that knows himself, knows not the sub- 
tlety of pride ? Who knows not that pride takes 
its occasion from our religious actions, from our 
religious feelings, and is the cankerworm at the 
root of them, that blights and makes them rotten ? 
We cannot express ourselves humbly, we cannot 
confess our sins heartily, but pride, like a malig- 
nant fluid, secreted from the heart, poisons our 
humility and our confession. Now it is evident 
that pride may feel a great deal of complacency, 
when we speak out to another the most secret and 
sacred feelings of our own breast. The reflection 
will perforce suggest itself, do what we may to 
keep it down, — " Is not this act of self-abasement 
a proof of my real goodness ? Could a man have 
the feelings which I disclose, and which by the 



On Religious Conversation. 1.81 

disclosure I unfold in my own consciousness, with- 
out having really some measure of saintliness? 
"Will not the person to whom I disclose them 
think better of me, instead of worse, for the dis- 
closure ? " 

I by no means say that the occasion which the 
talking of Religious Experience gives to feelings 
of this character ought to be a bar to it altogether. 
There is no religious exercise in the world, from 
which pride may not and does not take its occa- 
sion. If it is rather more apt to do so from this 
kind of conversation than from any other duty, it 
is because it is the most personal of all duties, the 
most bound up and identified with self. This 
consideration should make us, not backward in 
disclosing onr feelings when the doing so may be 
attended with advantage, — but only guarded and 
watchful over our own minds, while making the 
disclosure. 

Guardedness in exposing our feelings should 
arise from the consideration, that by thus diffusing 
them we evaporate their strength. This is a law 
of the constitution of our nature, the operation of 
which is inevitable. The sentiments of the heart, 
especially those of the most personal and sacred 
character, resemble fragrant odours. If you break 
the box of ointment, the fragrance must be more 
or less dissipated in the air. The concentration 



182 On Religious Conversation. 

of a religious feeling in the deep cell of the heart 
is its strength — its diffusion sometimes proves its 
weakness. There is one direction, however, and 
one only, in which it may be diffused without 
perilling its strength. The exposure of the heart's 
sentiments to Cheist in confession of guilt, and 
acknowledgment of His mercies — in application 
for His sympathy and aid — this, as bringing us 
into contact with the One Source of light and 
strength, cannot but confirm and intensify them. 
From Him we can , conceal nothing ; and it is our 
highest wisdom and privilege to pour out the 
heart before Him. Mary broke her alabaster box 
of ointment upon His feet, and that offering He 
endued by His Word with an undying fragrance. 
"Yerily, I say unto you, that wheresoever this 
Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there 
shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told 
for a memorial of her." 

Let the odour of our affections go forth towards 
Christ; and they shall preserve their fragrance 
fresh and enduring. 

The third and last consideration, which I shall 
adduce against an undue divulging of our religious 
feelings to others is, that this practice, however 
sometimes necessary and desirable, cannot but 
counteract a secret, true, and natural instinct 
within us. There is a remarkable analogy be- 



On Religious Conversation. 183 

tween the way in which we regard our physical 
frame, and that in which we regard our moral 
frame. Ever since the Fall, which brought in a 
consciousness of imperfetion, man has shrunk from 
scrutiny — nakedness has been accompanied with 
shame. The first effect of man's sin was to make 
him hide himself among the trees of the garden, 
and deprecate exposure, — and the Lord conde- 
scended to this instinct, and recognized its natural- 
ness under the circumstances, when "for Adam 
and his wife He made garments of skin and clothed 
them." And thus it is with our moral framework, 
too. We feel an instinctive reluctance to expose 
it, to lay bare the privacy of our heart's recesses 
before another. The heart, it is said, and there 
are periods when all, however surrounded with 
intimate and kind friends, must realize it — " the 
heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger 
doth not intermeddle with his joy." Joseph 
screens the intensity of his affections from human 
eye, — not merely because the public indulgence of 
them might have led to premature discovery, but 
from deeper reasons — reasons connected with the 
constitution of his nature. " His bowels," it is said, 
" did yearn upon his brother : and he sought where 
to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and 
wept there." 



184 On Religious Conversation. 

" He could not trust his melting soul, 

But in his Maker's sight ; 
Then why should gentle hearts and true, 
Bare to the rude world's withering view, 

Their treasure of delight ? " 

If, then, the instinct of reserve be a true and natural 
one, we should not violate it without just reasons 
moving us thereunto, and due limitations. Nature 
itself would teach us to select the confidant from 
the number of the most intimate, or of those who 
have most conciliated, and have the justest claims 
upon, our esteem. 

But are there no religious topics, save those 
which are of a personal character, and which turn 
upon our own inner and spiritual life ? Surely, as 
the whole realm of Nature lies open before the eye 
of the body, wherein the Philosopher may explore 
minutely, and discover by such investigation ever 
fresh wonders — wherein the simple lover of nature 
may find ever some new feature of beauty to dwell 
upon, with awe and rapture, — so there is, without 
the human mind, a spiritual world, which will 
appear, upon research, inexhaustible, will qpen up 
fresh wonders at every turn, and present fresh feat- 
ures of moral grace and wisdom, as the believer 
contemplates it with more of simplicity and devo- 
tion. The Word of God, the Truths of God- 
elementary or advanced — this is the sublime realm 



On Religious Conversation. 185 

which the human mind is permitted and invited to 
explore, and which as those are aware who have 
made trial, of it, will amply repay investigation. 
And conversation, the contact of mind with mind, 
has a tendency to shed peculiar light upon this in- 
vestigation. 

"We seldom discuss a difficulty, without at 
least opening a way towards the solution of it. All 
minds run in a track of their own, and sometimes, 
if we pursue our own speculations too far, inde- 
pendently of the views taken by others, the track 
becomes a rut, and thonght is beset by an entan- 
glement and perplexity. The mode of obviating 
this mischief is by the interchange of friendly con- 
versation on the thoughts arising out of God's 
Truth. If such conversation be conducted in a right 
spirit, it will be surely blessed by God, to greater 
clearness on our part. The two disciples had 
not long communed together, and reasoned upon 
their common perplexities, before light sprung up 
to them, and the Expositor was at . hand. " Jesus 
Himself drew near, and went with them ; and 
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things 
concerning Himself." Yes, mark the words — • 
" the things concerning Himself." What other 
testimony had Moses and the Prophets to bear, 
but such as had reference, either directly or indi- 



186 On Religious Conversation. 

rectly, to the Lord Jesus — to His Advents, His 
Divine Person, His Humanity, His offices of Grace, 
His work of Love and Pity ? "With what other 
testimony is the whole of Scripture charged, but 
that of Christ, Christ, Christ % Christ, in the typ- 
ical Histories of the Old Testament. Christ, in 
the typical Ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. Christ, 
in the Psalms, as the source of the Christian's con- 
solation, and the key to unlock all the affections 
of his heart. Christ, in the Prophecies, as Cap- 
tain of the great "triumph over evil — predicted 
with greater clearness as time wears on. Christ, 
in the Gospels, as the Healer and Benefactor of 
the race. Christ, in the Epistles, as the Wisdom 
of God. Christ, in the Revelation, as the Coming 
One, whose Advent is ever imminent, the pole- 
star of Hope, upon which the Christian's eye is 
ever fixed. Reader, the Scriptures are, indeed, 
fall of Christ, and we have His own testimony 
that we shall read them amiss, and discuss them 
amiss, unless our study and our discussion lead us 
to find Him in them. To commune of the Scrip- 
tures, if we commune aright, will be to commune 
of the Lord. As in the realm of nature, one form 
— that of the tree, with its branching arms — con- 
tinually presents itself to the eye — so, in Scripture, 
the Cross of Christ ever presents itself to the mind. 
Let us expect, and seek, and pray to discern it 



On Religious Conversation. 187 

there. Let the mind operate by conversation, as 
well as by reading and meditation, on the Word 
of God, until this image of the Cross stands ont 
"on every page. With how large a blessing may 
such conversation reasonably look to be fraught ! 
It may begin in perplexity, it shall end in clear- 
ness. It may begin with the presence of two or 
three — it shall end with the spiritual presence of 
a Fourth, " whose form is like that of the Son of 
God." He shall join us as we commune together 
and reason, and dissipate the cloud from our minds, 
and finally open our eyes, that we should know 
Him. 

We have now brought the subject, which has 
occupied our attention through these pages, to a 
close. As regards that part of it which has been 
treated in this Chapter, it is rather the necessity 
of completing our topic, which has led to the dis-. 
cussion of it, than the feeling that the evil specially 
censured in it is popular or prevalent. The last 
fault to which the many are likely to be tempted, 
is that of laying bare too freely to the eye of their 
friends the recesses of their own inner life. Rath- 
er surely the ordinary temptation is the far more 
dangerous one — to discard from conversation all 
religious topics as being grave and serious, and 
an undue check upon merriment — and " to speak 
often one to another "not on spiritual concerns, 



188 On Religious Conversation. 

but upon topics unedifying, frivolous at best, and 
possibly sinful or profane. 

I trust that in the preceding pages the sin of 
Idle "Words has been faithfully represented in its 
true colours ; and that some reader of this little 
Book may have received a warning against con- 
tinuance in that sin, which may resound in his 
conscience for some little time. 

It is a great thing (nay, it is the first step 
towards right conduct) to be impressed with the 
responsibility, which the faculty of Speech entails 
upon us. Jesus, when He restored that faculty 
to a dumb man, sighed, and said " Ephphatha." 
Why did he sigh % "Was that sigh an indication 
that the Lord was about to confer an awful power, 
a power which might be awfully abused, as it 
might also be made the medium of infinite good ? 
Was it equivalent to saying, " Son of man, hith- 
erto shut out from the power of sinning with the 
lips, upon the brink of what an awful responsi- 
bility art thou standing ! This giving thee an 
articulate tongue, to use or abuse, is almost like 
endowing thee with a soul, which, while it has a 
capacity of heavenly bliss, is also susceptible of 
being degraded to the lowest hell." 

Was this the Saviour's mind when He sighed ? 
It may be so; for indeed the tongue, being the 
faculty by which Reason is exercised, is so closely 



On Religious Conversation. 189 

allied with the Reason, that to give articulate 
speech is akin to endowing with Reason. 

And so, in view of this intimate association, it 
is written — 

" Death and life " (spiritual death and life) 
" are in the power of the tongue." Whoso keep- 
eth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul 
from troubles." 

And by a greater than Solomon it was said — 

"By thy woeds thou shalt be justified: 
and by thy woeds thou shalt be condemned." 

I cannot close this Chapter without bringing 
to the reader's memory a well-known-passage of 
Cowper, — one of the beauties of English literature, 
— which sums up the argument of the preceding 
Chapter : — 

" It happened on a solemn eventide, 
Soon after He that was our Surety died, 
Two bosom friends, each pensively inclined, 
The scene of all those sorrows left behind, 
Sought their own village, busied as they went, 
In musings worthy of the great event : 
They spake of Him they loved, of Him whose life, 
Though blameless, had incurr'd perpetual strife, 
Whose deeds had left, in spite of hostile arts, 
A deep memorial graven on their hearts. 
The recollection, like a vein of ore, 
The farther traced, enrich'd them still the more : 
They thought Him, and they justly thought Him, One, 
» Sent to do more then He appear'd to have done ; 



190 On Religious Conversation. 

To exalt a people, and to place them high • 
Above all else, and wonder'd He should die. 
Ere yet they brought their journey to an end, 
A stranger join'd them courteous as a friend, 
And ask'd them, with a kind engaging air, 
What their affliction was, and begg'd a share. 
Inform'd, He gather'd up the broken thread, 
And, truth and wisdom gracing all He said, 
Explain'd, illustrated, and search'd so well 
The tender theme on which they chose to dwell, 
That, reaching home, ' The night,' they said, ' is near. 
'We must not now be parted, sojourn here.' — 
The new Acquaintance soon became a guest, 
And made so welcome at their simple feast, 
He bless'd the bread, but vanish'd at the word, 
And left them both exclaiming, ' Twas the Lord ! 
' Did not our hearts feel all He deign'd to say ? 
4 Did they not burn within us by the way ? ' 

Now theirs was converse, such as it behoves 
Man to maintain, and such as God approves : 
Their -views indeed were indistinct and dim, 
But yet successful, being aim'd at Him ; 
Christ and His character their only scope, 
Their object, and their subject, and their hope." 



APPENDIX 



I subjoin, as an Appendix, a Sermon, which 
embraces two points respecting the Government of 
the Tongue omitted in the Essays. The Reader 
will pardon the re-appearance, in a homely dress, 
of two or three ideas, which have been already 
introduced into the body of the Work. 






APPENDIX. 



A SERMON ON THE GOVERNMENT OF 
THE TONGUE. 

PKEACHED IN ETJGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL. 



James ii. 2 — 4. 



« For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in 
word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole 
body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may 
obey us ; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the 
ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce 
winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whither- 
soever the governor listethy 

The Apostle is speaking, in these verses, of the 
Government of the Tongue. 

And he says of the Government of the Tongue 
two distinct things, which are not to be confounded 
together, — both strong things to say, but the latter 
stronger than the former. 

First, he says that the degree in which a man 
governs his tongue is an index of his whole moral 
9 



194 Sermon at Rugby, 

state. An index. The hands of a watch, or the 
projection on a sundial, are an index, by which you 
may ascertain the progress of Time, or in other 
words, how much of his course in the heavens the 
Sun has accomplished. The Sun ( or rather the 
Earth in its diurnal revolution) travels silently and 
without noise. In order to be advertised at any 
moment of the Sun's exact stage of progress, we 
create an artificial index — the watch, or the dial, 
— which reports that progress with accuracy. Sim- 
ilarly, our moral life, though always moving either 
forward or backward (for, my brethren, it is a 
solemn truth that there is no standing still in moral 
life ), yet moves slowly and imperceptibly ; as we 
cannot see the Sun moving (although after it has 
moved, we note that it is in a different quarter of 
the heavens), so we cannot see ourselves growing 
better or worse (although, after a lapse of time, 
we may take notice that we are more or less good 
than we were a year or six months ago). It is 
desirable, therefore, to have an exact index, by 
recurring to which, we may ascertain our moral 
progress. And this index, the Apostle says, is the 
Tongue. That is the thought of verse 2. Keep 
it distinct in your minds. 

But something more than this, — a further, and 
stronger statement, — is yet behind. 

The Government or non-government of the 



on the Government of the Tongue. 195 

Tongue is not only an index. It is also a determin- 
ing instrument. It is spoken of under the images 
of a bit and a rudder. Now what is a bit ? — an 
instrument which determines the course of a horse, 
which' makes him turn to the right or to the left, 
which, if loose in his mouth, leaves him to a free 
and speedy action, and, if drawn tight, arrests his 
progress. Just so a rudder with a ship ; — it is the 
guiding instrument of the vessel's course. With 
the rudder you may turn the ship at a moment's 
notice as you please, but the guidance of a vessel 
which has lost her rudder, by the sails, is at all 
times a very difficult and dangerous matter, — not 
likely to prosper in any but the most expert hands. 

Now this image, you observe, is an advance 
upon the index. The hands of the watch, and the 
index of the dial, do not determine the Sun's 
course, nor have they the slightest influence upon 
it. They ma?*h and announce its progress ; but 
they in no way bias its course, as the helm biases 
the course of the ship, and the bit biases the course 
of the horse. 

Now, then, I will say a word on these two 
great topics — the Tongue as the index of our 
moral career, and the Tongue as the governing 
instrument of our moral career. 

To those of you who are striving to be holy, 
and to imitate the example of Our Saviour, do I 



196 Sermon at Rugby, 

now address myself. And I pray that what I say 
may be made, by God, the means of helping you 
in that pursuit. 

First, the Tongue as an index. " If any man 
offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and 
able also to bridle the whole body." Only one 
perfect Man ever existed ; and of Him — in perfect 
accordance with the principle here laid down by 
the Apostle — it is written, not only that He did 
no sin, but also that " no guile was found in His 
mouth," that u when He was reviled, He reviled 
not again ; when . He suffered, He threatened 
not," — and, in another place, that " full of grace 
were His lips." The words of the text are not to 
be taken as implying that any man (except Him) 
is, in the judgment of God, perfect,. but simply as 
asserting that the more closely any one approxi- 
mates to perfection, the more vigilantly will he 
be found to govern his tongue, so that his per- 
formance of this duty supplies an accurate touch- 
stone of his advance in holiness. 

And this will become quite obvious if we re- 
flect, first, that to govern the tongue is a task so 
difficult, that he who has grace to accomplish it, 
has grace to accomplish any thing. The exceed- 
ing great difficulty of governing the tongue con- 
sists principally in the great scope there is for 
going wrong. Other temptations only have scope 



on the Government of the Tongue. .197 

for their enticements occasionally. When a man 
is in health and spirits, friends all around him, 
and affluence and prosperity his portion, he has 
no temptation to murmur. When he is poor, and 
obliged to toil hard for a day's livelihood, there is 
no great scope for self-indulgence. If he lives a 
very retired life, and comes into little or no colli- 
sion with society, of course his temper and cour- 
tesy are not tried. If he is obliged to be busy 
about a work which demands close attention of 
the mind, there is no avenue by which an unclean 
thought can insinuate itself. But because the busi- 
ness of life cannot he earned on without speaking, 
there is always ample verge and scope enough for 
offences of the tongue. In our least talkative day, 
the words which we speak from morning to night, 
if written down, would almost fill a volume. 
Speech is continually passing from us by a thou- 
sand avenues of occasion, — we want something, or 
desire information, or have some intelligence to 
communicate, or wish to please, or must do some- 
thing to while away time, or to vent our feelings 
of irritation and peevishness. Even the reason- 
able and necessary occasions of speech — the occa- 
sions, on which without speech the business of 
society could not be carried on, are very, very 
numerous. 

So that the reason why the Government of the 



198 Sermon at Rugby, 

Tongue is more arduous than any other duty, is 
the reason why it is more difficult for a military 
commander to maintain a town which has a thou- 
sand outlets, than one which is only accessible at 
two or three points. In the latter case the garrison 
may be concentrated at the two or three vulner- 
able points. In the former, they must be dispersed 
in weak handfuls at the various outlets. Of course 
we gather with certainty that, if the force suffices 
to maintain the city with many approaches, it will 
suffice to maintain the city with few. And the 
Word of God (all whose reasonings are, if I may 
say so, the reasonings of Inspired Common Sense) 
infers upon the same principle that he who can 
stand against sin succesfully, where the avenues of 
temptation are numerous, can stand also where 
they are few. " If any man offend not in word, 
the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle 
the whole body." 

But now for a second reason why the tongue 
should be an accurate index of the moral state. 
Offences of the tongue are thought so little of by 
mankind in general, that he who is strict with him- 
self here will be strict with himself, we may be sure, 
in all departments of duty. If he thinks gravely 
of wrong words, he cannot think lightly of wrong 
actions. You know how very little importance men 
generally attach to sins of the tongue — how strange- 



on the Government of the Tongue. 199 

ly their judgment on this point is contrasted with 
that of Him Who said, — " Every idle word which 
men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in 
the day of judgment." Is not the tendency of our 
minds to reason thus — u A hasty word, vented in a 
moment of excitement — a slight misrepresentation, 
a profane joke, an impure inuendo, — why it is all 
empty breath, — nothing serious is intended by it, 
and a man may be a very good man, who indulges 
in such words occasionally? " Such is the preva- 
lent notion. It is radically erroneous. It is 
wholly contrary to God's Word. It is probably 
glanced at in the third Commandment, where, 
after forbidding the taking His Name in vain, a sin 
which could not find place except in the exercise 
of the tongue, the Divine Legislator solemnly adds 
— " The Lord will not hold him guiltless " (oh, 
verdict of the world, how wilt thou shrivel up into 
insignificance when God reveals His Judgment at 
the Jast day !) — " The Lord will not hold him guilt- 
less that taketh His Name in vain." But however 
such is the sad fact, that men do take a very light 
view of sins of the tongue, very much lighter than 
they do of other violations of duty. ISTow, if a 
man should be found, who, in his own case, takes 
a very grave view of this subject, watches and 
weighs his words strictly, and rejects scrupulously 
all that it comes into his mind to say, which would 



200 Sermon at Rugby ^ 

not tend either to some good end or to innocent 
amusement, — it is impossible, is it not, that that 
man should be a careless liver ? The care of his 
words is the index of a general care over what 
men reckon more important than words, — actions, 
and feelings. 

Then the point seems to be proved by reason, 
as well as asserted in Scripture, that an accurate 
index of a man's entire moral condition is sup- 
plied by the Government of his Tongue. Weigh 
it well. Just as you resort to the sundial or the 
watch for the reckoning of time, so in your spirit- 
ual reckoning, in your acts of Self-Examination, 
you may consult the index of the tongue, with the 
assurance that it will give no untrue verdict. To per- 
sons disposed to engage seriously in that arduous 
work, and yet beset (as we all are here) with mani- 
fold business, — this thought may really be a mate- 
rial assistance. You wish to examine your whole 
moral character and life ? Examine the words of 
the past day, — ithey may be a sufficient criterion. 
Have you been watchful over them, or have you 
let them slip, without reflection, from your mouth ? 
Have you governed them — that is, inspected them 
before utterance, rejected one, approved another, 
chastised a third, and so on % or, have you thrown 
the reins of self-discipline down, and let them take 
their course ? 



on the Government of the Tongue. 201 

I am sure, from Reason and the Word of God, 
that this will be a trne index ; that it will never 
give an inaccurate verdict. But oh ! is not this 
an alarming thought to many of you ? Ought 
it not at once to awaken you to the truth of your 
state, as with trumpet call ? For there are very 
many of you who, so long as you do not go wrong 
in your lives, give yourselves no concern at all 
about your words. They may be good this hour, 
and bad the next, so far as your superintendence is 
concerned, — for you never think of controlling 
them. And if vigilance over the words be, as 
God asserts it to be, the criterion of vigilance 
over the life — what is the conclusion? What, 
but that you are taking no heed to administer 
your general conduct after the precepts of God, 
and give, therefore, the surest proof that, what- 
ever outward privileges may attach to your lot, 
you have no spiritual life dwelling in you ? 

But now to turn to the other image. The 
tongue is not only the index, but the determining 
instrument also of our moral state. It not only 
points out, but regulates, — as the bit regulates the 
horse, and the helm the ship. This position is 
equally apparent, when we come to examine it, 
with the former. 

Take, as an example, the case of temper. A 
man has a strong temper, exceedingly irritable, 
9* 



202 Sermon at Rugby , 

and hard to overcome. If he is a man with no 
self-discipline, this temper bursts forth contin- 
ually, and renders himself, and all around him, 
miserable. He is sensible of its mastery, and, in 
his cool moments, deplores it. "Well, there is one 
obvious rule of wisdom which, if he clings to it 
steadfastly, will, by God's Grace, enable him to 
curb the unruly passion. He complains that he 
cannot control his feelings, — they are like a fretful 
steed, too much for his rider, and they bear him 
away whither they list. Granted (for argument's 
sake) that he cannot control his feelings ; — can he 
not control his words ? Can he not, if he pleases, 
refrain from speaking ? or if he pleases, utter a 
conciliatory expression ? Let him go into society, 
after prayer for the aid of God's Spirit, with a stead- 
fast resolution, that come what may — slight, or ridi- 
cule, or insult — and feel what he may, — he, at all 
events, will not say a single irritating or irritable 
word. I will suppose him, by God's Grace, to keep 
his resolution. What is the result ? The result 
is, that the trial, if it comes at all, does not 
.last very long. If the other party is not really 
bent on provocation, the whole feeling passes off, 
— perhaps veers right round in another direction 
— as this want of intention becomes apparent. 
And if he is bent on provocation, he soon wearies 
of it when he is met by soft words that turn away 



on the Government of the Tongue. 203 

wrath, — he begins to respect the principle which 
he instinctively feels to be at the root of this 
moderation, — perhaps he ends by acknowledging 
the fault, and expressing regret, — an issne which 
ensures an entire conversion of feeling towards 
him in the mind of the other. Whereas what would 
an angry retort have done? It would simply 
have ministered fuel for irritation to both minds. 
Again, as regards secret pride. Pride is a 
swelling haughty steed, who will bear away tri- 
umphant all who minister occasion to it. And 
occasion will be ministered to it by words — by 
talking too much about self — whether in the way 
of self-gratulation, or in the way of self-deprecia- 
tion. I am sure that language of the latter de- 
scription really feeds and nourishes secret pride, 
and if much indulged in, will probably render it 
ungovernable. Avoid, by all means, speaking 
humbly of yourself to any one except to Him 
who seeth in secret. The reason is this, — pride 
is so inwoven into the very texture of our nature, 
that our feelings are very rarely indeed humble. 
Now, if there be humility of expression^ where 
there is no humility of feeling, that is the worst 
species of hypocrisy. But humble words are not 
only evil in themselves, — they excite evil. We 
derive a kind of satisfaction, when using them, 
from the reflection that we are humble, — we be- 



204 Sermon at Rugby, 

come inwardly proud of our humility. The safest 
rule (and that which is most consistent with cour- 
tesy and good breeding) will be to obtrude self as 
little as possible on the company — to speak as 
little as possible about self, in order that (oh, 
hard attainment !) we may think as little as 
possible about self. All words of self-praise, all 
words of self-depreciation, forbidden — if this rule 
be minded, it will prove the restraining of many 
a spark, which else might fall upon and kindle 
the explosive material of pride. 

Again : as to that desire, natural to every man, 
of making himself entertaining and agreeable iu 
the society in which he moves. 

This desire, if not restrained, often leads us to 
say things which were better unsaid, — to give 
point to some of our conversation by a jest which 
is questionable, or to be bitterly sarcastic, or, at 
least, to exaggerate and misrepresent the truth. 
One objectionable remark, especially if successful 
in exciting wonder or amusement, is enough to 
ensnare us. The strong desire then becomes, like 
the horse whose rein is slackened, uncontrollable. 
"We must then perforce go on in the career on 
which we have entered, and trick out our story 
with embellishments, without regard to the feel- 
ings of our neighbour, the interests of truth, or 
the Majesty of God's Presence. Therefore that 



on the Government of the Tongue. 205 

original error, — that first remark, which made 
the tongue too hot to hold, — had better have been 
restrained. And to restrain snch remarks is ut- 
terly impossible without bitting the horse, without 
exercising a continual restraint npon that little 
member, which boasteth great thing's. 

I need not dwell, because that is so evident, 
upon the awful ascendancy which unclean desire 
gains over a man who allows himself to use im- 
pure language. Such a person is indeed, by the 
practice of telling forth the abominations which 
exist in his heart, feeding and pampering a viper, 
the poison of whose fangs will speedily spread 
itself, to his eternal ruin, through his whole soul. 
This is a subject to be meditated upon in secret, 
rather than to be spoken of in public. Suffice 
it that I have called your attention in that direction, 
and warned those who are willing to give heed. 

It will have occurred, perhaps, to some of yon, 
that in inculcating so strict a government of the 
tongue — (and by consequence so continual a 
watchfulness over it) — we have been investing 
Religion with a garb of gloom and austerity, and 
robbing it of all mirth and lightness of heart. I 
must speak, of course, without fear of conse- 
quences, what the Lord puts into my mouth ; 
but God forbid that I should represent Eeligion 
to you as at all alien to pure enjoyment or inno- 



206 Sermon at Rugby, 

cent mirth. Wisdom's ways are pleasantness and 
peace. And let me say distinctly, that I am not 
forbidding any words but such as God's Law pro- 
nounces to be eyil. Innocent mirth and gaiety, 
laughter at that which cannot wound another 
person, and is not wrong, and ' is not profane — 
so far from being an evil, is in a social (nay, in a 
religious) point of view a decided good. And a 
dull or moping spirit wilfully cherished, would be 
as contrary to the spirit of the Gospel as it is to 
our natural inclinations. Christ has done all for 
us, if we be His true followers, — has relieved us of 
the load of guilt, of corrupt inclinations, of cark- 
ing care. If the great Burden-bearer bore those 
burdens for us, why are we to bear them our- 
selves ? Why, if I can only realize these great 
things, — why should not a well of joy and thank- 
fulness spring up within me, which shall make 
the heart ever merry and the countenance ever 
shining, and the mind accessible to all possible 
enjoyments which are pure ? 

Besides, one of the objects for which the tongue 
was given, is recreation; and this object would be 
frustrated, and life would not be relieved of its 
manifold little burdens, if conversation were not 
occasionally brightened with merriment. We 

HAVE BEE3T ADVOCATED CONTENT AE WATCHFULNESS, 
NOT CONTINUAL SERIOUSNESS, OF WORDS. 



on the Government of the Tongue. 207 

Finally : some will think that I have been 
dealing after all with petty duties, and that your 
time might have been occupied better with mat- 
ters of more moment. In that case I must go back 
to my authorities : — " If any man among you seem 
to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but de- 
ceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." 
I have not said any thing more serious about words 
than St. James and Our Blessed Lord say. Be- 
sides, the notion of not dealing with small duties 
is philosophically unsound. Life is made up of 
small things, small duties, small sins, small temp- 
tations, small troubles, small fragments of happi- 
ness. It has been much upon my mind lately, that 
to neglect these same small thiDgs is the height of 
folly, — that it is only through acquitting ourselves, 
well on small occasions, that we can make a sure 
progress in holiness, and discipline ourselves for 
grappling with poverty, bereavement, calls of 
Providence, arduous posts of responsibility, and all 
the great occasions of life. The man who waits 
for a great emergency, or a fine opportunity, to 
show and approve his religion, is in a fair way, I 
think, never to have any religion at all. And, 
therefore, it was that last Sunday I warned you to 
give heed to the good conduct of each day, as it 
presents itself, — assured that from the good conduct 
of days, the good conduct of years would follow. 



208 Sermon at Rugby. 

And, therefore it is, that I now warn you to 
give heed to your words. I tell you, on God's 
Authority, that care over the words is the very 
secret and key of care over the life. Here I rec- 
ommend you to bestow a great deal of study and at- 
tention, — with the assurance that it will not be 
thrown away. And, above all, I recommend you 
to pray, that God would so fill your soul at every 
moment with the thought of the Majesty of His 
Presence, as to make the restraint of wrong words 
an easy task to you — aye, and to convert that re- 
straint into an act of continual Worship. 



the e:nt>. 



D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
THE 

NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA. 

EDITED BY 

GEORGE EIPLEY AND CHARLES A. DANA. 

'published bt 

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, New York 

In 16 Vols. 8vo, Dunble Columns, 750 Pages each. 

Price, Cloth, $ Sheep, HalfMor.,% Half Ruse., 

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Evert one that reads, every one that mingles in society, it* 
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lost. The matter in question is found at once, digested, con- 
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2 D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 

PLAN OF THE CYCLOP/EDIA. 

The New American Cyclopaedia presents a panoramic vietf 
of all human knowledge, as it exists at the present moment. 
It embraces and popularizes every subject that can be thought 
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fund of accurate and practical information on Art and Science 
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to present the most comprehensive and accurate record that 
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In History, the "New American Cyclopaedia gives no mere 
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THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPAEDIA. 



DISTINGUISHING EXCELLENCES. 

"While we prefer that the work should speak for itself, and 
that others should herald its excellences, we cannot refrain 
from calling attention to the following points, in which we 
take an honest pride in believiDg that the New American 
Cyclopaedia surpasses all others : — 

I. In Accueact and Feeshness of Infobmation. — The 
value of a work of this kind is exactly proportioned to its cor- 
rectness. It must preclude the necessity of having other 
books. Its decision must be final. It must be an ultimatum 
of reference, or it is good for nothing. 

II. In Impaetiality. — Our work has undergone the exam- 
ination of Argus eyes. It has stood the ordeal. It is pro- 
nounced by distinguished men and leading reviews in all parts 
of the Union, strictly fair and national. Eschewing all expres- 
sions of opinion on controverted points of science, philosophy, 
religion, and politics, it aims at an accurate representation of 
facts and institutions, of the results of physical research, of the 
prominent events in the history of the world, of the most sig- 
nificant productions of literature and art, and of the celebrated 
individuals whose names have become associated with the 
conspicuous phenomena of their age — doing justice to all men, 
all creeds, all sections. 

III. In Completeness. — It treats of every subject, in a terse 
and condensed style, but fully and exhaustively. It is believed 
that but few omissions will be found ; but whatever topics may, 
through any oversight, be wanting, are supplied in an Appendix. 

IY. In Ameeican Chaeactee.— The New Cyclopaedia is 
intended to meet the intellectual wants of the American people. 
It is not, therefore, modelled after European works of a similar 
design ; but, while it embraces all their excellences, has added 
to them a peculiar and unmistakable American character. It 
is the production mainly of American mind. 

Y. In Pe actio al Beaeing.— The day of philosophical ab- 
straction and speculation has passed away. This is an age of 
action. Gui lono is the universal touchstone. Feeling this, we 
have made our Cyclopaedia thoroughly practical. No man of 
action, be his sphere humble or exalted,can afford to do without it. 



D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 



VI. In Intebest of Style. — The cold, formal, and re- 
pulsive style usual in works of this kind, has been replaced with 
a style sparkliDg and emphatically readable. It has been the 
aim to interest and please, as well as instruct. Many of our 
writers are men who hold the foremost rank in general litera- 
ture and their articles have been characterized by our best 
critics as models of elegance, force, and beauty. 

VII. In Convemenoe of Fokm. — No ponderous quartos, 
crowded with fine type that strains the eyes and wearies the 
brain, are here presented. The volumes are just the right size 
to handle conveniently; the paper is thick and white, the type 
large, the binding elegant and durable. 

VIII. In Cheapness. — Our Cyclopaedia has been univer- 
sally pronounced a miracle of cheapness. We determined, at 
the outset, to enlarge its sphere of usefulness, and make it 
emphatically a book for the people, by putting it at the lowest 
possible price. 

Such being the character of the New American Cyclopaedia, 
an accurate, fresh, impartial, complete, practical, interesting, 
convenient, cheap Dictionary of General Knowledge, we ask, 
who can afford to do without it? Can the merchant, the 
statesman, the lawyer, the physician, the clergyman, to whom 
it gives thorough and complete information on every point 
connected with their several callings? Can the teacher, who 
is enabled, by the outside information it affords, to make his 
instructions doubly interesting and profitable? Can the far- 
mer, to whom it offers the latest results of agricultural research 
and experiment? Can the young man, to whom it affords the 
means of storing his mind with useful knowledge bearing no 
any vocation he may have selected? Can the intelligent 
mechanic, who wishes to understand what he reads in his daily 
paper ? Can the mother of a family, whom it initiates into the 
mysteries of domestic economy, and teaches a thousand things 
which more than saves its cost in a single year ? In a word, can 
any intelligent American, who desires to understand the insti- 
tutions of his country, its past history and present condition, 
and his own duties as a citizen, deny himself this great Ameri- 
can digest of all human knowledge, universally pronounced the 
best Cyclopaedia and the most valuable work ever published? 



THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPAEDIA. 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CYCLOP/EDIA. 

The best talent in all parts of the country, and many dis- 
tinguished foreign writers, have been engaged in the New 
American Cyclopaedia. "We give below the names of several of 
the most prominent contributors, from which the public may 
form some idea of the character of the work. 



Hon. George Bancroft, LL.D., New York. 

Hon. J. E. B aetlett, late U. S. and Mexican Boundary Commissioner, Provi- 
dence, E. I. 
Eev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D., New York. 

Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, U. S. Attorney General, Washington, D. C. 
Capt. George S. Blake, U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. 
Hon. Erastus Brooks, New York. 
Edward Browx-Seqttard, M.D., London. 
John Esten Cooke, Esq., Eichmond, Ya. 

Eev. J. W. Cttmmings, D.D., Pastor of St. Stephen's Churoh, New York. 
Prof. James D. Dana, LL.D., Yale College, New Haven, Conn. 
Hon. Charles P. Daly, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, New York. 
Hon. Charles S. Davies, LL.D., Portland, Me. 
Ealph Waldo Emerson, Concord, Mass. 
Hon. Edward Everett, Boston, Mass. 
Pres. C. C. Eelton, LL.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 

D. W. Fiske, Esq., Secretary of the Geographical and Statistical Society, New 

York. 
Charles L. Flint, Esq., Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, 

Boston, Mass. 
John W. Francis, M.D., LL.D. 
Prof. Chandler E. Gilman, M.D., College of Physicians and Surgeons, New 

York. 
Prof. Henry Goadby, M.D., State Agricultural College of Michigan, Ann 

Arbor, Mich. 
Horace Greeley, Esq., New York. 
George W. Greene, Esq., New York. 

E. A. Guild, Esq., Librarian of Brown University, Providence, E. L 
Prof. Charles W. Hackley, D.D., Columbia College, New York. 
Hon. James Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Gerard Hallock, Esq., editor of the "Journal of Commerce,'* New York. 

Prof. A. W. Harkness, Brown University, Providence, E. I. 

John E. G. Hassard, Esq., New York. 

Charles C. Hazewell, Esq., Boston, Mass. 

M. Heilprin, Esq., New York. 

Eichard Hildreth, Esq., author of " History of the United States," Ac, Ne^f 

York. 
Eev. Thomas Hill, President of Antioch College, Ohio. 
Hon. George S. Hillard, Boston, Mas*. 



D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CYCLOP/EDIA. 

J. S. Hittell, Esq., San Francisco, Cal. 

James T. Hodge, Esq., Cooper Institute, New York. 

Prof. L. M. Hubbaed, D.D., University of N. C, Chapel Hill, N. C. 

Eev. Henry N. Hudson, author of " Lectures on Shakespeare," &c, Litch« 

field, Conn. 
Prof. S. TV. Johnson, Tale College, New Haven, Conn. 
J. C. G. Kennedy, Esq., TVashington, D. C. 

Hon. John B. Keee, late U. S. Minister to Central America, Baltimore, Md. 
Eev. T. Staer King, San Francisco, CaL 
Chaeles Lanman, Esq., TVashington, D. C. 
Charles G. Leland, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Prof. James E. Lowell, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
E. Shelton Mackenzie, D.C.L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Eev. H. N. McTyeiee, D.D., editor " Christian Advocate, 1 ' Nashville, Tenn. 
Chaeles Nordhoff, Esq., author of " Stories of the Island TVorld," &c , New 

York. 
Eev. Samuel Osgood, D.D., New York. 

Prof. Theophiltjs Paesons, LL.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Prof. E. E. Peasler, M.D., New York Medical College, New York. 
John L. Peyton, Esq., Staunton, Va. 

TVilliam C. Peime, author of " Boat Life and Tent Life,*' &c, New York. 
J. H. Eaymosd, LL.D., Principal of the Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, New 

York. 
Geoege Schedel, Esq., late British Consular Agent for Costa Eica, Staten 

Island, N. Y. 
Prof. Alexander G. Schem, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Penn. 
Hon. Feancis Schroeder, Jr., late U. S. Minister to Sweden, Paris. 
Hon. "William H. Sewaed, U. S. Senator from New York, Auburn, N. Y. 
TVilliam Gilmoee Simms, LL D., Charleston, S. C. 
Prof. Henry B. Smith, D.D., Union Theological Seminarv, New York. 
Eev. J. A. Spencer, D.D., author of " The History of the United States," &c, 

New York. 
Rev. TVilliam B. Sprague, D.D., Albany, N. Y. 
Hon. E G. Sqtjiee, author of " The States of Central America," " Nicaragua," 

&c. 
Alex. TV. Thayer, Esq., Berlin, Prussia. 
John E. Thompson, Esq., editor " Southern Literary Messenger," Eichmond, 

Ya. 
George Ticknor, LL.D., Boston, Mass. 
Osmond Tiffany, Esq., Springfield, Mass. 

E. T. Trall, M.D., author of " Hydropathic Encyclopaedia," New York. 
Baron De Teobeiand, New York. 

TV. P. Trowbridge, Esq., U. 8. Coast Survey, TVashington, D. C. 
Henry T. Tcckeeman, Esq., New York. 

Alexander TValker, Esq., editor of the "Delta," New Orleans. 
Charles S. TVeyman, Esq., New York. 

Eev. TV. D. TVilson, D.D., Hobart Free College, Geneva, N. Y. 
E. L. YorjMANs, Esq., author of " The Hand-Book of Household Science, 11 

New York. 



THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS MD DISTINGUISHED MEN. 

In setting forth what the Press think of the New American 
Cyclopaedia, we hardly know where to begin, so numerous and 
flattering are the notices it has received. We can only give 
here and there a brief extract from the leading Reviews and 
Journals, and letters from distinguished men, bearing for the 
most part on special features of the work. 

The work itself no longer needs commendation at our hands, or at any hands. It 
has long since established its worth; and, if there be in it any considerable 
defect, much search will be required to find it — North American, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

The great arts of condensation, of clear perception, and striking exposition of the 
essential parts of their subject have been fully attained; and will give the 
reader a library of universal knowledge in a convenient compass, arranged for 
ready use, and attractively presented in the concise and perspicuous style ap- 
propriate to such a work.— Letter from the late Eon. Thos. H. Benton. 

This work, instead of being a mere dictionary— a stupid epitome of dry facts and 
dates — is made up of attractive and readable matter; scholarly and sparkling 
essays; fresh biographies of living and dead celebrities; records of important 
discoveries and inventions ; and information on every subject that has attract- 
ed the attention of man up to the present period. — Examiner, Poughlceepsie, 
N. Y. 

I feel quite sure that it will be marked by distinguished ability, and that, when 
concluded, it will be a vast storehouse of late and very important information 
—such a work as almost every intelligent person will be glad to have always 
near him for reference. I can only express the hope that so large an under- 
taking may be duly sustained, and crowned with ultimate snccess,— Letter 
from the Bt. Rev. Horatio Potter, (Prot. Epis.) Bishop of N Y. 

The editors have done their duty with justice, fairness, and liberality. We see 
no instance of partisanship or partiality, and, as yet, no proofs of that hostile 
sectionality of which we have hitherto had reason, in all such publications, to 
complain.— Mercury, Charleston, S. O. 

We esteem it the best and most comprehensive Cyclopaedia that has vet been is. 
sued from the press of this or any other country.— News, Savannah, Ga. 

When completed, this Cyclopaedia will bethemost complete library of knowledge 
which has ever been given to the world in the same space since the art of 
printing was discovered.— Union, Rochester, N Y. 

Its freshness and general thoroughness give it a decided advantage over any 
other Cyclopaedia of its class hitherto issued on either side of the Atlantic— 
Daily Times, N. Y. 

It is a perfect treasury of knowledge. In all branches of the arts and sciences, ia 
literature, history, biography, and geography.— Pilot, Boston, Mass. 



D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 



OPINIONS OF THE PEESS. 

The scientific articles are evidently the productions of learned and accomplished 
men. Many of the papers deserve especial commendation, as presenting the 
latest developments in their various departments of research. — National In- 
telligencer, Washington, D. G. 

Our own country has never before been so fairly or fully represented in any Cy- 
clopedia. America, her resources, her literature, her politics, and her repre- 
sentative men receive in this work, at least, their full share of attention.— 
Post, Boston, Mass. 

To enumerate one half of its excellences would require far more space than news- 
paper columns afford. To the professional man and the laborer, the citizen 
and the farmer, it is invaluable as an epitome of all useful knowledge. — Lead- 
er, Cleveland, O. 

There is no conceivable topic which is not here discussed as fully as most persons 
would care to find it. — American Agriculturist. 

It should be in every family, for in no other shape can so much useful information 
be obtained as cheaply. As a book of reference, it is invaluable.— Indiana 
Sentinel. 

It is, without doubt, the most' complete work of the kind ever published. To 
prepare it, the publishers have called into requisition the talent of some of the 
best men our country affords. — Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia, Pa. 

There can be no doubt that, at least for the use of American readers, and in some 
respects wherever the English language is spoken, the Cyclopaedia will 
greatly SURPASS, in its value as a reference book, any similar compilation 
that has yet been issued on either side of the Atlantic— North American 



Take it all in all— for the strict purposes of an Encyclopaedia; for a clear survey of 
all the departments of human knowledge ; for embracing every important 
topic in this vast range; for lucid and orderly treatment; for statements con- 
densed yet clear; for its portable size— not being too large or too small ; for 
convenience of reference, and for practical utility, especially to American 
readers; it is incomparably the best work in the English language.— JH. 
T. Evangelist. 

It is a most extraordinary effort of genial scholarship and of multum inparvo 
erudition. We commend it as a book which the world has long wanted, and 
which will exert an incalculable influence in Europe as regards creating re- 
spect for solid American learning.- Telegraph, Harnsburgh, Pa. 

It has been truly said that almost every man of note who ever lived and died, of 
whom there is record, has in it a place; every country, province, race, and 
tribe ; every sea, river, lake and island ; every science, religion, and, in short, 
almost every noun in the language, is descriptively illustrated in the most 
complete shape in which the information could be condensed.— Blade, Tole- 
do, O. 

The various subjects are not treated aceordine to the mere routine of technical 
details, or in the settled formularies of professional science, but, while the in- 
formation is full, thorough, and accurate, it is given in a genial and attiactiv* 
Btyle. — Tribune, Mobile, Ala. 



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